


End of Era

by DarkGreiga



Series: Megaman ZX: Era of MegaMen [7]
Category: Rockman ZX | Mega Man ZX
Genre: FanFiction.Net, Original Character(s), Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-11
Updated: 2019-11-11
Packaged: 2019-11-15 13:37:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 37,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18074399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkGreiga/pseuds/DarkGreiga
Summary: The fall of the villains isn't enough to stop the evil spreading in the world, especially when they are scientists who leave their legacy so that others can take over their work of destroying humanity and the world. With last person who knows the clues to the legacy gone, the next generation of Mega Men has to find a way to put a stop to the recent spike of maverick outbreaks.





	1. Return of Mavericks

**Author's Note:**

> The first chapter of the newest ZX sequel is here! Finally, after a while of choosing between making another sequel or simply end the series after World Reset, I decided to try and write it after seeing that the prequels are pretty popular. Now here's the first chapter to enjoy!

The sounds of explosion echoed throughout the flying airship, shaking the whole vehicle as the airship’s commander stood anxiously while looking at the screen in front of her. The halls were filled with mechaniloids of many shapes and sizes, taken down slowly by the remaining Guardian members.

Another explosion shook the airship, prompting the commandant to hold on to her chair from the violent shaking, “Commander Prairie! The left side of the airship had suffered major damage from that explosion!”

“Try opening the connection to the land unit once more!” Prairie went back to her seat and began typing on the screen, “There are too many of them for us to handle at once. We need to connect to Aeolus and Atlas from the Guardian Base in the city… Oh dear…”

“The connection signal was jammed!” one of the operators reported, “It seems like there’s something in the city that interrupted our communication signals!”

The door behind Prairie slid open, exposing the sounds of buster shots and metal clanging as two of the highest ranking Guardian members stepped in, “Prairie, can’t you get through to those two already?”

“Please hold out a little longer, Vent, Aile,” Prairie replied without turning her eyes away from the screen, “I’m trying to see if I can get through to them.”

“Well,” Aile let out another charged shot before Vent slammed the door shut, “Ashe is helping too, but we need more people to help. Besides, we have to protect this room too because Estelle and Oriel are in there.”

Aile turned to Prairie’s room as Vent opened the door, but froze in place before he stiffly turned to Aile, “Aile, I think we have a problem…”

Aile could read the horrified look on her husband’s face before she rushed to his side, finding only the sleeping Oriel on the bed and the floor cluttered with stuffed toys, “Seriously, that little troublemaker…”

Vent turned to see that Prairie was still busy with the controls before turning back to Aile, “She must’ve snuck out while she was occupied. I can’t actually blame her for that, though…”

“This isn’t the time to choose whom to blame, Vent!” Aile yelled at him in frustration as she pointed at the door, “Our daughter is out there, right in the middle of the dangerous battle field!”

“I know that!” Vent yelled in reply, “Look, I’ll go out there and find her. You just stay here and hold the fort for us, okay?”

Vent dashed out of the room before Aile could reply and her yells was met with the shutting door, “You’re not the only one responsible for her, you know…”

“This is…!” Prairie’s loud voice drew Aile’s attention as she headed to her side, trying to look at what the commander was doing. Prairie rose from her seat and looked at the Guardian in front of her with a serious look, “Aile, we need to hurry. I saw two figures wearing cloaks heading for the Ciel System. This attack was a setup to draw people away from that room!”

“Okay, I’ll go and stop them,” as Aile was running out of the room, Prairie grabbed her arm, “Huh?”

“Take me with you. There’s something I have to do there as well, so please don’t stop me here,” Aile watched as Prairie walked towards the door, completely unarmed, “Let’s go.”

Aile turned back to look at Prairie’s room, “But what about Oriel? I can’t let them hurt him!”

Prairie turned towards the operators, “Once we leave the control room, activate the level S security system. Get our finest members beside Vent and Aile to guard this room at all cost!”

“Understood!” the operators replied in unison before Aile and Prairie went through the door, heading straight towards the engine room.

Halfway towards the engine room, the two were surprised by a flying Galleon shooting a hole below them and flew closer. The distance was close enough for Aile to shoot him accurately in the head, until another one came from the hole and shot her buster off her hand. With her best weapon too far away to grab, her only choice of weapon left would be her saber.

A single swing was enough to split the first Galleon before she dashed quickly to slam her saber to knock the second Galleon back into the hole. The female Guardian didn’t know that a small army of regular Galleons had gathered behind her and Prairie with their busters ready. She turned to them as she was checking on Prairie, only to realize that she had to think of a plan quickly before the shots harmed Prairie.

A laser shot was fired from over Aile’s shoulder and bounced around while hitting the small Galleon army until none was left, “Does becoming a parent affects your unbeatable shooting skill?”

“Ashe!” Aile was glad to see her hunter friend, despite her remark about her shooting skill, “And no, that was because I had to deal with all of them at once while protecting Prairie.”

“Yeah, I noticed,” Ashe approached the two and picked up Aile’s buster on the way, “Here you go.”

“Thanks,” Aile took her buster back before turning to Prairie, “I can handle the things here on my own for now, so I suggest you let Ashe to escort you back to the control room.”

Prairie shook her head, “I can’t. I have to go to the engine room.”

“Are you sure? I mean, Aile can take care of whatever it is that you want to do there while I take you back to safety,” Ashe noticed that Prairie was looking at her with a pained look, “I-Is there anything wrong with me?”

“Prairie,” Aile spoke up sternly as the two turned to her, “Is there something you haven’t been telling us? About the attack or about the cloaked people here?”

“Wait, did you say cloaked people?” Ashe asked as she realized something, “I think I saw two of them standing in front of the engine room when I passed by.”

“We have to hurry there,” Prairie spoke up, “I have the feeling that this attack is just a distraction for them so they can get access to steal the Ciel System.”

“If that thing powers this whole airship then it being taken is the same as our doom,” Ashe casually replied, “Come on, let’s go already!”

Aile and Prairie nodded as the three of them headed towards the engine room, blasting off any mavericks in their way. As they made it to the last hallway, the floor had already been stained by the reploid blood of the fallen Guardian members. A small cloaked figure stood in front of the door with their back turned to them.

“It’s… him…” Prairie whispered, but it was loud enough for Ashe to hear her.

“Didn’t you say that there are two of them?” Ashe’s question met silence from Prairie as she turned to Aile, “Hey, did you see the other…” Ashe noticed that her Guardian friend wasn’t listening to her at all, “What is it?”

“He sees us and he’s got a buster ready beneath that cloak,” Aile cautiously held her buster higher, aiming for the cloaked figure’s head.

Ashe did the same as she watched the figure raising his buster as well, but noticed that his aim wasn’t at them. Her eyes followed where the buster was aiming for and it landed near a pile of rubble and metal, which confused her until she noticed that the rubble was moving. When realization hit her, Aile had already dashed towards him as the shot was released.

“ESTELLE!” Aile called out to the little brunette hiding in the pile as the shot was about to hit her, but Aile had arrived sooner and shielded her daughter with her body. The shot connected with her shoulder and went a bit through her armor.

“Aile!” Prairie called out as she tried running towards the injured Guardian.

“Prairie, that’s too dangerous!” Ashe ran after Prairie as well, not noticing the shadow following them closely behind.

“M-Mommy…?” the surprised Estelle looked at her mother, who was looking pained, “Are you okay, Mommy?”

“Don’t worry, Mommy will be okay,” Aile wrapped her good arm around Estelle, pulling her close as she sighed in relief, “Thank goodness you’re okay…”

“Can I get some medicine for you, Mommy?” Estelle asked innocently, getting a small smile from Aile as she shook her head.

“It’s okay, it can’t wait for a few minutes,” Aile let her daughter go and pushed her away gently, “Go and hide somewhere, okay? Once Mommy and Ashe beat the bad guys, we’ll go and find Daddy together.”

Aile watched closely as Estelle jumped over the piles of metal before hiding in one of them, but surprised when she saw Ashe thrown to the ground in front of her. Using her other hand to hold the buster, Aile pointed at the place where she assumed Ashe was thrown from but only found Prairie standing in front a tall but blurry black figure.

When she looked closely, the figure wasn’t actually as tall as she thought they would be. A black saber-like object was standing above Prairie’s head, which had Aile’s attention as it slowly moved to the side. As if on cue, Prairie turned to see the thing which had drawn Aile’s attention behind her but she didn’t get the chance to see who the figure was.

Aile and Ashe were both too far away and shocked to react quickly as the saber went through the commander’s body, splitting her in half. Realizing what they had witnessed yet too shocked to move, the two called out the name of the fallen comrade they had been closest to as tears fell from their eyes and the sound of her metallic body hitting the metal-based floor.

“PRAIRIE!!!”


	2. New Age, Old Scars

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The (probably) more light-themed second chapter is here! Surprises are waiting just below.

Aile sat up with a loud gasp and was panting when she looked at her surroundings. She was still in Prairie’s old room, which had become hers as she took over. She put her hands on her face while trying to calm herself down before she let out a sigh and turned to the bedside table. There was a framed photo of her holding her newly-born son along with her daughter sitting on Vent’s shoulder with Prairie, Grey, and Ashe standing around them.

Aile ignored the two biometals sitting in front of the frame as she took it in her hands, rubbing her finger on Prairie’s photo, “I’m sorry… even with the biometals, I still couldn’t protect you…”

She had known Prairie for years as she first knew her when she and Vent first joined the Guardians. She was her second boss, slowly turned into a friend, a sister, and lastly, a second teacher to her kids. Oriel was too young to remember her, but Prairie’s death had an impact on Estelle as she had spent a lot of time with the previous commander. Her failure to protect her then must have disappointed the other Guardians.

Aile held the photo frame with both of her hands and shut her eyes, _‘I don’t want to lose another one of my family… but I can’t do anything…’_ her grip tightened for a moment before she put the photo down on the table face down, _‘No… I have to do what I can! I will risk everything so it will never happen again!’_

Aile pushed herself off her bed and walked out of the room, arriving in the control room with surprised expressions coming from the operators, “Commander Aile! It’s late, you should get some rest!”

“I can’t rest until I make sure everything is fine,” Aile replied flatly, “Are there any reports about Maverick attacks?”

“Currently there are none, Commander,” one of the operators replied, “But-”

“Are there any signals about possible Maverick activities?” Aile’s question cut off the operator’s words.

“There are no anomaly signals detected for the past 24 hours,” the other operator replied before she continued with her report, “We’ve already made contact with Chief Atlas from the Area D Headquarters and her patrols reported that the city is safe from any rampaging Mechaniloids.”

“Tell her to check again,” Aile commanded, “A complete disappearance of Maverick attacks for the past eight years is not normal. There has to be a small trace of signal coming from them somewhere in this world.”

The operators paused for a moment before replying quietly, “Understood, Commander,” the operator turned around and faced Aile with a sad smile, “Please, don’t worry about the Mavericks for the time being. We will try to track down any signs of Mavericks until our shift is over, so please get some rest.”

“I have to suggest the same as well, Commander,” the other operator turned to her as well, “We all know you have worked the hardest and the most in the Guardians, so please let us do our part to protect this world as well. You need a lot of rest to make up for all the sleepless nights you had for the past few weeks.”

Aile could tell that the operators knew she was too tired to spark another argument about her sleeping time, so the only choice she had was to do as they said. After all, she couldn’t do any protecting if she just keeled over and spent another week in bed from overworking herself. She just wished that she could last longer without sleep so she could be ready to lead the other Guardian members anytime the Mavericks attacked.

“Very well,” Aile let out a nod as she turned to face the door leading to her bedroom, “Make sure the report is ready tomorrow morning.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” the operators replied in unison and waited for the door to close before they stopped their work.

“The commander has changed drastically since that day,” one of them commented, getting a nod from her partner.

“True, Commander Prairie was killed in that last attack eight years ago,” the other operator added, “Even Vice Commander Vent wasn’t able to do anything to console her.”

The partner simply nodded, before she turned back to the screen in front of her, “We shouldn’t be talking about them behind their backs, though. Even if they’re not going to punish us for it, it’s still not a nice thing to do. After all, we still have a lot of work to do until the morning.”

* * *

“Daddy!” a boy with short brown hair came running from the door, jumping to the bump on top of the bed, “Daddy! Estelle says Ashe is back! Ashe is back from her fun adventure!”

“Ow…” the bump moved, revealing a tired Vent rubbing his chest, “Yeah… I heard…” Vent pulled the boy closer, “Next time you wake up Daddy, do it nicely, okay Oriel?”

Oriel let out an innocent laugh, “Sorry Daddy!”

“Now this is a case of the child being more responsible than the parent!” a familiar voice was heard before a woman with long silver hair stopped at the door, “Seriously Vent? You’re turning your kids into your personal alarm clock?”

“They’re early risers, Ashe,” Vent let out a yawn before getting off his messy bed and stretching his arms, “Not from my genes, definitely.”

“Thanks for the info, Mister Obvious,” Ashe replied sarcastically before turning to the approaching Oriel, “Hi Oriel! How are you?”

“I’m fine!” Oriel cheerfully replied, “I don’t wet bed again!”

“Now that’s Daddy’s good boy,” Vent left the room to join them as he patted Oriel’s head, “And your sister is…?”

“Dad!” a feminine voice echoed in the hallways as a teenage girl with shoulder-length brown hair stomped towards them, “I told you to wake up early! Didn’t I mention last night that Ashe is coming?”

Vent let out a laugh, “Sorry, sorry. I can’t help but sleep a few minutes more.”

Estelle and Ashe exchanged looks before turning to Vent, “A few hours.”

“Fine!” Vent let out a defeated sigh, “Now that Ashe is here, isn’t it the time for you two to train?”

“Oh, come on Dad! It’s weekend, can’t we get a day off?” Estelle complained before turning to her little brother, “Don’t you agree with me, Oriel?”

“Day off! Day off!” Oriel simply repeated what Estelle had said, but it wasn’t enough to convince the adults otherwise.

“Now kids, let’s train a little bit for day, okay?” Ashe gently shoved Estelle away, “Now go on ahead to the training room because your dad and I have something to talk about with the commander.”

“With Mom?” Estelle spoke softly before she nodded, “Okay, we’ll wait,” Estelle took Oriel’s hand, “Come on Oriel, let’s get to the training room.”

Vent stood still as he watched Estelle and Oriel leaving before letting out a sigh. Ashe noticed the sigh coming from him, “Don’t worry, those kids are going to be just fine.”

“No, that’s not what I’m worried about,” Vent replied with his eyes still on the hallways Estelle and Oriel had just passed by, “I’m worried that Estelle and Oriel are going to treat Aile as ‘someone to talk important things to’ rather than their own mother. I want them to spend more time with Aile as a family rather than a boss and her subordinates.”

It was Ashe’s turn to let out a sigh as she started walking ahead, “And you know that’s almost impossible unless a certain someone changed… or has she?”

Vent shook her head as he walked by her side, “She’s still the same. She hasn’t changed at all since that day.”

“Well, this is just going to be another boring report then…” Ashe let out a complaint.

“What about you?” Ashe stopped in her tracks from Vent’s question, “You’re going all over the world trying to find him, right? And he’s the only reason for you to travel pretty much all the time.”

“You heard her then, right?” Ashe spoke up as she walked a few more steps and stopped in front of the control room, “She doesn’t feel like he’s important enough to look for, so I’m going to do it myself. I still have the hunters to help me even when she isn’t going to help.”

Vent decided not to reply and instead, opened the door, “Come on, let’s just get your report in.”

* * *

“And of course, the Hunter’s Camp is safe as always…” Ashe ended her report half-heartedly as she could’ve ended it a few minutes earlier if Aile hadn’t interrupted to ask about any signs of Mavericks.

“So, to conclude your report, there aren’t any Maverick attacks?” Aile asked with her seat still turned away from Ashe and Vent.

“Nothing and absolutely nothing. And that’s not the main point of the report either,” Ashe pointed out in annoyance, “Come on, Aile! If we can find him, we’ll have more man power to handle the protection of the people and reploids alike!”

“We don’t have time to look for someone who has been missing for over eight years,” Aile replied coldly, “It’s best to invest our time to look for any signs of danger and prevent any kind of Maverick attack.”

The silver-haired hunter had lost her patience. Much to Vent’s and Aile’s surprise, Ashe forcefully turned Aile’s chair to face her, “Grey is our friend. I know that he’ll help us if we can just find him and help him from whatever trouble he’s in. It’s Grey we’re talking about, so we aren’t going to wander around the world looking for a stranger!”

Aile gave her a blank stare before forcefully removing Ashe’s hands of her chair as she stood up, “The lives of those people and reploids are far more important than some old friend who hadn’t contacted us for years. I won’t stop you if you insist on finding him, but the Guardians and I will not join your silly cause.”

“Why is finding an old friend so silly to you?!” Ashe yelled in anger, “Don’t you remember our fights back then? How many villains we’ve taken down together? All four of us, and those four Mega Men too…”

“This conversation is over, Ashe,” Aile sat back down on her seat, “I will do anything to protect people and reploids. It’s my duty as the commander of Guardians and I’m putting everything at risk in order to do so.”

“Aile…” Vent finally spoke up, but he couldn’t find the right words to say.

Aile glanced at him for a moment before continuing, “If sacrificing my life means everyone will be safe, I’ll do it. I’ll take my own life, just to protect my family and friends around the world!”

“You’ve changed, Aile…” Ashe spoke up softly as she looked at her sadly, “You’ve changed so much that I don’t even know you anymore… Are you really the same Aile I considered my best friend…?” Ashe took a deep breath to calm herself down before turning away from her, “If that’s what you think, then this is where we part ways.”

Ashe ran towards the door with Vent looking at her in worry as Aile maintained her blank face. Vent saw his wife’s expressionless face and put a hand on her shoulder, “That’s enough, Aile. You’ve gone too far… Please, just calm down…”

Aile continued ignoring him as she started at the door in an expressionless face, but nobody was aware of what was in her mind then. No one was completely aware of her pain, her sadness, and her waning confidence in herself and her friends. She only wanted to protect her family, yet no one seemed to understand her and she had to say meaner things to try and make them understand. In the end, more regret was all she could feel.

_‘I’m sorry…’_

* * *

Ashe stopped in front of the control room with her eyes still looking at the ground, unaware of other presences in the room. When she could finally start to calm down, the sound of clanging metal got her attention as she noticed two brown-haired kids standing in the corner near the control room. Oriel was looking at her in confusion, but Estelle had a different expression on her face.

“Ashe, was that my mom?” Estelle asked, trying to sound calm.

Ashe closed her eyes and nodded slightly before walking away, “Come, let’s begin your routine.”


	3. Next Generation Mega Men

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally managed to get this chapter written after a busy week!

The brown-haired teenage girl was holding a wooden sword while facing Megaman Model ZX in front of her. She was panting, but she wasn't going to give up and throw away the sword she was holding. She knew the movements, but her body wasn't fast and strong enough to keep up as the Megaman quickly charged with their own wooden sword.

Estelle tried blocking the incoming attack, only to find that the stab-like attack was just a bait before she was hit by a three-hit sword combo. When the last hit knocked her sword down and left her head open, she was met with an uppercut attack which knocked her sword flying. When the Megaman's sword was in front of her face, she was completely armless that she could only raise her hands in defeat.

"I lost… again…" Estelle let out a disappointed sigh, "Even though you're not fighting like my dad, you're still hard to beat!"

The Megaman let out a chuckle as they glowed and turned into the silver-haired hunter, "I only used his strength into my strategy, while you fought pretty much as reckless as your dad."

"Estelle!" a voice called from behind Estelle before a pair of arms hugged her belly, "Are you hurt?"

"It's okay, Oriel," Estelle turned to her brother for a moment for a head pat before walking past him to pick up her wooden sword, "I'm just tired from all those matches."

"And that's the very reason why you need to train more," Ashe added as Estelle responded with a sigh, "Come on, let's do another round and Oriel will be up next."

"Me too?" Oriel asked in confusion as Ashe nodded in response.

"He's still too young, Ashe," Estelle stepped in front of her brother, "And can we just switch into shooting practice this time? I'm getting sick of playing around with swords."

Ashe let out a defeated sigh, "Okay, we'll do that later. Your dad asked me specifically to train you with swords, so Oriel still needs to know a bit of the basics for sword fighting. Once we're done, we'll head for the Hunter's Camp for the shooting practice."

"Actually, that'll have to wait a bit longer," Vent suddenly walked into the training room and towards Ashe, "Come with me to see Fleuve. He said that he had something to tell us about his research."

"It's originally just you, right? And you're just going to drag me along to listen to something I won't even understand?" Ashe playfully answered before taking a short glance at Estelle and Oriel, "What about your kids? Didn't you tell me that I was in charge of watching over them while giving them some sword fighting practice?"

"Oh, right," Vent turned to the younger two, "Wait for us to come back here, okay? And don't even think about going to the city."

"Yes, Sir," Estelle playfully saluted, copied by Oriel.

"Yes, Daddy!" Oriel saluted and smiled before Vent and Ashe left the training room.

"Hey Oriel?" Estelle turned to Oriel, who was still in saluting position, "How about we go and visit Storm?"

"We can't! Daddy will be mad!" Oriel protested, "We have to stay!"

"Okay, Daddy might be mad," Estelle took Oriel's hand with a sly grin on her face, "Only if he finds us missing when he gets back. All we have to do is just go back before he returns."

"Should we tell Mommy?" Oriel innocently asked, making the grin on Estelle's face disappear, "Estelle?"

"No, we're not telling anyone," Estelle slightly pulled Oriel's hand as they both walked out of the training room, "Especially not her."

* * *

 

"I really hope that you're not teaching Estelle and Oriel any weird things," Vent commented as he and Ashe walked though the hallways towards Fleuve's lab, "From the way she speaks and acts, I feel like your unnecessary playfulness is rubbing off on her."

"It's boring to be serious all the time," Ashe replied while putting her arms behind her head, "What about you? Aren't they supposed to be your responsibility?"

"Aile's been keeping me busy with patrols," Vent stopped in front of the lab and turned to Ashe, "You can tell how bad it is after that argument between you and her earlier and I still can't do anything against her."

"I think I can tell more about how she has been feeling all these years," Ashe opened the door to the lab, "Now's not the time for that, right?"

Vent let Ashe went into the lab before following her, "Yeah, I guess…"

"Ah, you're here!" Fleuve called out as he took a moment to turn his attention away from the screen, "I did some research like you requested, but…"

Vent noticed the uneasiness on the older reploid's face, "They aren't compatible, are they?"

Ashe looked back and forth between the two in confusion, "What's not compatible? Any of you care to fill me in on the details?"

Vent gave Fleuve a nod before he responded with another nod and typed a few things on his computer, "Vent asked me to check the Biometals' compatibilities with Estelle, Oriel, and Storm, but the result is rather disappointing," the screen showed the three figures he mentioned with some data pointing to various spots on their bodies, "The Biometals are compatible based on genetic data within each of the Chosen Ones, but the same doesn't apply for their offspring. The compatibility levels for those three are either low or not compatible at all."

Vent looked at the screen filled with information, though his face told them that he hardly understood anything, "So… what you're saying is… what?"

"I think the screen is pretty obvious to me," Ashe pointed at the red crosses beside Oriel's data, "Oriel's not compatible, right? That's why there are red crosses next to his data."

"It was his compatibility with all the Biometal data we have in our database," Fleuve added, "Sadly he can't transform at all, but his sister Estelle is half-compatible to Model X and no other Biometals," Fleuve zoomed into the third figure next to Estelle and Oriel, "Storm is compatible with both of his parents' Biometals, but only half-compatible to both of them."

"I think that kinda makes sense," Vent commented as he kept his eyes on the screen, "Model Z's original Chosen One was…"

Fleuve nodded before he brought up another window to the screen, "I've tried looking into all of the Chosen One's data along with their children and I managed to find the exact same data in Estelle," Fleuve turned to look at Vent, "There should be another Biometal she's fully compatible with out there. In other words, she's also a Chosen One for a Biometal but we don't have the data for it."

"It leaves us with her being a Chosen One for Model W…" Ashe added and turned to Vent with a serious look, "I don't like how this is going…"

"There's also Model O too, but we don't know where it is right now," Vent added before turning back to Fleuve, "I don't think Aile will like this news too, especially that Estelle might be a Chosen One for the Biometals of our old enemies. Please don't say anything to her, Fleuve."

The old researcher gave him a moment of silence before different data were shown on the screen, "The previous commander managed to get some information about modifying Biometal data so that they can be used by anyone other than the Chosen Ones. I assumed that she was already aware of this matter and asked someone to find out more about this method."

"Grey," Ashe spoke up the name of their lost comrade, "He mentioned that Prairie was giving him special missions after he went back from Albert's old lab."

"But both of them are already gone," the people in the lab was surprised by the different voice calling out to them before they turned to the door and found the present commander there, "Fleuve, I already mentioned about how you should focus your research on tracking and eliminating any possible chance of Maverick attacks."

Fleuve lowered his head in guilt, "My apologies, Commander Aile."

"Aile, he's just trying to help in any way he can," Ashe gave her protest, "You can't just take down anything just because you think it isn't necessary!"

"Please, there's no need to defend me," Fleuve spoke up before he turned to look at Aile, "I will look into any signs of anomalies in places where Mavericks used to gather. I will send the report of my findings tonight or as soon as I find anything out of the ordinary."

"Very well," Aile nodded in understanding before turning to Vent and shoved a few devices to him, "Give these to Estelle and Oriel to study. They should be spending more time on studying rather than in the training room for pointless exercise."

"It's not pointless, Aile," Vent protested, "I want to train Estelle and Oriel so that they're ready to take over as official members of the Guardians and ready to fight Mavericks on the field."

"Leave the kids out of the battlefield. As adults, we should be the ones responsible for their safety along with the others. We should let them study so they can help people and reploid like Fleuve in research of eliminating Mavericks," Aile turned towards the door without showing them any expression, "This is the best for them and for us all."

Vent watched as Aile left the lab without another word, "I feel like the more she's obsessed with eliminating Mavericks, the more distant she is from us."

"Sure, she can be annoying that way," Ashe started, getting Vent's attention, "But if you look back at what happened since that day, I can tell that she's blaming herself more and more even when there was someone else worth blaming too."

Vent studied her face for a moment before he realized when Ashe meant and nodded, "Yeah, but I really can't blame any of them. It's those Mavericks that needs to blamed, not you and definitely not Aile."

"It's easy for you to say when you're not there at that time," Ashe said bitterly, "But I can't imagine how much harder Aile could've taken it if I wasn't there too," without another word, Ashe left the lab, leaving Vent alone with Fleuve.

Vent let out a sigh before turning to Fleuve with a small smile, "Sorry you had to see and hear all that, Fleuve. Thanks for letting us know about it anyway, even if we might not be able to put it to good use."

"It's fine, Vent," Fleuve turned to look at the screen once more, which showed a map of the city and its surroundings, "Commander Aile wants a world free of fighting and Mavericks, so I can understand what she wants to do with the Guardians. It is saddening that she never realizes that she still has families and friends who care for her and will always lend a helping hand or offer a shoulder to cry on."

Vent nodded, though knowing that Fleuve wasn't looking at him, "That's why I'm still here and staying by her side. I believe that she will go back to the person we know so well," Vent approached him and stood by his side while his eyes was looking at the screen, "I'll do things my way and I'll take responsibilities for anything that happened, even if Aile is against this," Vent turned to Fleuve with a determined look, "Fleuve, please, can you try and create another copy of Model X for Estelle? I'm going to make her ready to help us fight off the Mavericks on the field."

Fleuve gave him a firm nod, "Yes, I understand."

Vent nodded in response and walked towards the door, but stopped for a moment, "And Fleuve?"

"Yes?"

"You're not on your own too. Even with our fellow Guardians gone from the last Maverick attack, you still have us here."


	4. The Aftermath

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the new chapter, but filled with the flashback from after the Maverick attack.

A ball of floating light had come out of the Ciel System of the Guardian Base as it travelled through the nearly destroyed hallways. Pieces of mechaniloids were mixed up along with the bodies of the fallen Guardians and the metal pieces of the airship. The survivors of the attack didn't have the time to cry, as they had to clean up the mess and be ready for the next possible attack. They had lost many lives that they couldn't afford to let their guard down and lose more members. They weren't just friends and comrades; they were a part of the family.

The three Mega Men along were standing behind the commander's empty seat as a pop-up screen showing a man with long pale green hair. The man looked as worn out as the three as he slowly nodded before looking back for a short bit and back to face the three, "I see. I have to apologize to you three in Atlas' place."

"No, it's the Mavericks' fault for hi-jacking the communication system," Vent replied as he fixed Oriel's position on his arm, "You can't reach us for help and we can't reach you guys for help. You can tell her that, Aeolus."

Aeolus turned for a moment as he was listening to someone, "Maybe I should, though now's not the best time for it. She still needs to keep herself together after what happened to us."

Ashe walked in front of Vent, "I'll come and visit you two later, okay? I need to get in touch with Siarnaq and the other hunters as well."

"Please do," Aeolus gave her a nod, "Other than that, should we select a new commander to lead the Guardians? I'm not forcing you to rush it, but I think we need another person to bind us together and fight the Mavericks. They're getting stronger and stronger by now."

"Right…" Vent looked at the closed door, "Fleuve might be our successor, being our current vice commander, but…"

"We don't mind either way," Aeolus cut him off, "If we can't decide right now then I have to cut the connection. I have to take over Atlas' duties while she's still recovering."

"I'll do it," Aile suddenly spoke up, "I'll take over Prairie's place."

"Aile…?" Vent looked at her in disbelief.

"I'm going to take responsibilities to atone for my mistake," Aile looked at him with a serious look, "I will never let another life lost to the Mavericks. I'm putting my life on the line to protect them."

"Very well," Aeolus only gave her a nod, "That's one problem taken care of."

"Wait, I can't agree to this yet!" Vent approached Aile, "Aile, let's just let Fleuve take over, okay?"

"You'll take his place and I'll take Prairie's place," Aile looked at Vent coldly, "That's final."

"You're not in the right mind, Aile," Ashe spoke up, "I know that you felt guilty and everything, but leading a lot of people like this at once isn't something you can decide on your own."

"I have no objections to making Aile our new commander," the door slid open as the gang turned to see the older scientist walking into the control room, "The Guardians are currently in a state of chaos and I'm certainly not the person who is capable enough to handle a lot of people. I can only help with research-related matters."

"So, what's your first order, Commander Aile?" Ashe asked Aile, who was hardly showing any emotion.

"Operators," Aile called out to the operators behind them, but without looking at them, "Trace any signs of Maverick activities on the ground and in the sky. We'll have to destroy all of those Mavericks before they can destroy us."

"Yes, Ma'am!" the operators replied in unison before the sounds of rapid typing were heard in the room.

"Fleuve," Aile turned to Fleuve, "Examine the remains of the Mavericks and see if we can make any weapons to counter them. Make a lot of copies of them for every member in the airship and the land base."

"Certainly," Fleuve left the room for his examinations. There were only Vent, Ashe, and a sleeping Oriel left in the room, waiting for their orders.

"Vent, I'll leave you in charge of cleaning up the airship once Fleuve is done with his work," Aile turned to Ashe, "You'll be patrolling the city, Ashe."

"Wait, I'm not officially a member of Guardians," Ashe responded, "And shouldn't you leave the city patrols to the land base members?"

"You'll work alongside them. Talk to Aeolus about who you'll be taking along to patrol, as long as you're not bringing his son," Aile replied, making Ashe sigh.

"Storm's only 6, like a year younger than your own daughter," Ashe commented, "Sure he's got a bit of training from Atlas, but I'm not dumb enough to take an inexperienced kid with me," Ashe turned to the sleeping Oriel on Vent's arm and pointed at him, "But everyone being busy with everything, shouldn't there be someone to look after Oriel at least? And Estelle too."

"I have too much responsibilities to handle," Aile spoke up coldly as she headed for the commander's seat, "I'm leaving you in charge of Estelle and Oriel, Vent."

"Well, that wasn't-"

"Our kids aren't just something you can leave someone in charge of," Vent spoke up, cutting off Ashe's comment, "Didn't we promise each other that we'll always be there for them? So that they can truly experience having both parents around in their childhood and not to suffer like we did as kids?"

There was a short pause before Aile replied, "Teach them things about the world and about how the Mavericks will always be bad. Keep them away from harm and teach them so they can give helpful contributions to the Guardians."

"Weren't you listening to me?" Vent started raising his voice, "They're our children and they need us as their parents!" Vent was too caught up in his emotion that he didn't notice the movements in his arm, "Why do you treat them like… like…"

"Because their safety is far more important!" Aile spun around as she yelled angrily, tears slowly dropping from her face, "Don't you understand what happened to Prairie when I let my guard down? Can't you think what Estelle feels when she saw her godmother killed right in front of her?!"

"I know they're strong. I believe they can get through this if we're always there for them," Vent replied as he tried calming down, but he was still upset enough to reply his wife with a glare, "We're their parents and we have to believe what they're capable of."

"They're still kids! They can't do anything!" Aile replied with an angry yell.

"Then why don't we-" the sound of the door opening had stopped Vent from yelling in response, as he realized that it wasn't just the four of them there, "Es… telle…?" the sound of mumbling also made Vent notice the disturbed baby in his arm, "Sorry little buddy, did I wake you?"

"Vent, go after Estelle," Ashe suggested, "I'll try and talk some sense into her."

Vent looked at her, then at Aile, before giving Ashe a slight nod, "Thanks…"

Aile's anger slowly faded as Vent left, but she was back to her emotionless face, "That's not nice, you know. I never expect that I'll be repeating your own words back to you."

"Why are you still here?" Aile completely ignored her statement as she asked the silver-haired hunter, "You claimed that you weren't an official member of the Guardians, so why are you still here?"

"I'm trying to help a friend out from her despair," Ashe replied flatly, "I have other things to do, but I'll try to talk to this stupid friend of mine to her senses."

"If you're talking about Prairie, you can put all the blame on me. You really saw what happened there," Aile replied.

Ashe let out a sigh. She wasn't too fond of jogging her old memories of death and war with the recent event in the airship. It was hard on her too, but she was aware that none of them could expect another strong enemy to come out of the blue and kill Prairie. She was tired from all the fighting and she was definitely tired from suppressing her sadness and her painful past memories. She didn't want any pointless argument with someone she had called a friend for years.

"I should share the blame for her death too," Ashe spoke up in a whisper, "If I could sense someone else coming then I could've done something to prevent that tragedy."

"I'm at the position to shoot. Yet I didn't do it and let her get killed," Aile replied before she turned away from her, "I'm the only one to blame and I'll never let anything happen to anyone else."

"You had to protect Estelle that you couldn't reach your buster quick enough," Ashe replied with a serious look on her face, "But is this what you've decided? To discard everyone from your life just so you can protect them?"

"If they're too close to me, they'll end up like Prairie," Aile replied in a whisper, "They don't have to understand why I'm doing this. They only have to stay away from me to be safe. I'll even make them hate me if it means they are going to be safe. I have the power yet I can't save anyone…"

Ashe looked at her for a moment before turning away as well, "If Grey were here, things could've gone better. We could've reduced the number of casualties and Prairie could still be alive."

"It'll be the same," Aile shortly replied, "There's no point in talking about someone who's been missing for months."

"I'm not asking for your opinion," Ashe turned to see that Aile was still facing away from her, "I've wasted enough time trying to talk some sense into you. I'm going to find him and see if he can fight with us again, just like the old times."

Aile stood in her place as Ashe left the room. It was the best decision she could come up with so that the people around her could be safe. Her children would always be away from harm. The other Mega Men could put up a fight better than she could. The other Guardian members would be strong enough with the weapon Fleuve and his team developed. So why was she still feeling that something wasn't complete?

She had to be left alone so that people would be unharmed. Her mother died because she was there with her. Giro died because of Vent's and her charging through without proper thinking. Estelle almost got hurt when she was around. Prairie was killed because she didn't shoot the enemy when she could. She should be hated and be left alone, but the other side of her wanted to be with others and be forgiven for her mistakes.

' _It's my own choice. This is my decision for them,'_  tears started rolling on her cheek, completely unaware of the floating ball of light on the back of her shoulder.

" _It's never anyone's fault, Aile… Because it's… mine…"_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not sure if it's going to cause a bit of slowdown for this story's update or anything, but I'll let you guys know that I'll be focusing on an almost finished story in another fandom for a bit (only available in my FFN though, because it's an old fandom). Writing time should be much more available this week now that I've pretty much rushed my project last week, so I guess there shouldn't be much effect to the updates. And then again, that's what I think right now.


	5. Painful Old Memories

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay! Honestly this chapter has been sitting in my folder unfinished until a few days ago because of the major writer's block. Somehow I'm making it work while I'm getting rid of the block...

"Hey, Ashe!" Vent called out as he caught up to the silver-haired hunter when she was heading for the transerver room, "I'm guessing you're heading back to the Hunter's Camp again?"

"Yeah…" Ashe nodded as she replied, "I think this is my best lead to find him…"

"I see…" Vent didn't know how to reply, but there was something else in his mind that he wanted to ask, "Hey, can I ask you something else?"

"If it's about what happened back then, I've told you everything," Ashe replied flatly, "And I can't do anything to help with Aile if you can't do anything about her yourself."

"Uh… that's not what I was going to ask…" the question meant something to him, as Ashe had been with his kids more since Aile distanced herself from him and their children, "It's about Estelle's progress… in training."

"She's not good with swords, if that's what you're wondering about," Ashe let out a grin, "I think she's got more of Aile's genes in her than yours. That includes them being early risers like her and not heavy sleepers like you."

"Thanks for pointing that out," Vent replied sarcastically, "I just want to ask you if Estelle is hanging out with someone other than you and Oriel."

"I don't think that has anything to do with…" Ashe turned to him with a sly grin on her face, "Oh… am I talking to Estelle's doting father? Is Papa Vent worried that a guy might snatch his little girl away?"

"No!" Vent declined, "I'm seeing her less often in the airship and I'm worried if she's hanging out with bad people in the city!"

Ashe let out a sigh, "If something bad happens, Atlas will contact the base and you'll know about the bad news. And knowing Atlas now, not even a small pickpocket will get out without a big fuss."

"But-"

"Besides," Ashe continued, "Don't you think that you should give her a little more credit? She's already 15 and I can tell that she can at least fend for herself in case something happens. After training her for many years, I can say that she's strong enough on her own."

"She's still not acting like her age, though," Vent spoke up calmly, "That's why I'm worried that she's going to get bad influence from unknown people."

"Nah, she won't," Ashe stepped into the transerver room, "She might act like a little kid, but she's definitely not naïve," the hunter had her back turned to him as she spoke, "You're her dad, aren't you? Shouldn't you at least put more faith in her when Aile is simply too busy to care?"

As Ashe disappeared from the room, Vent stood still in his place as he took Ashe's words in consideration,  _'Put more faith… in Estelle…'_

* * *

A woman with short brown and orange hair let out a loud gasp as she woke up from her afternoon nap. She was trying to calm herself down while cold sweat was dripping from her head, though it hadn't been working too well when the nightmare she had just now came back to her mind. Sleeping certainly wasn't her most enjoyable thing to do even if she needed her daily rest at night. Her lack of sleep at night had driven her to sleep while on duty, though her subordinates understood her enough to bother her.

"Mother," the sudden voice from the other side of her desk had given her another shock, "I apologize for surprising you, but did you happen to have that nightmare again?"

"Storm…" the woman let out a tired sigh as she rubbed her face, "Yes… I should've listened to your father then and handled the base defense instead…"

The young teen, who had his mother's brown eyes and his father's green hair, walked away for a moment and returned with a glass of water, "Here, please have some water."

"Thanks," the woman gulped the whole glass of liquid before handing Storm the empty glass back, "If you're done with today's training, you can take a day off for the rest of the day."

Storm looked at his mother in surprise before he nodded and saluted, "Yes, Ma'am."

"Chief Atlas!" one of the Guardian members in the land base came to her desk, "We have two visitors from the airship base. Should we let them through?"

Atlas let out one of her rare smiles and nodded, "Yes, although Storm is most likely the one our guests are going to see."

"Very well," the Guardian member turned to Storm, "Captain Storm, please come with me."

"Yes," the teen gave him a nod as he proceeded to follow him.

"Storm, a moment?" Atlas called out, which then got responded quickly as Storm turned to look at her, "Don't let your guard down. You're going with Commander's daughter and son and we'll have to answer to her if something bad happens to them."

Storm gave her a firm nod before taking out a red metal object and showing it to her, "Yes, I will."

* * *

"Hi Storm!" the green-haired teen noticed the familiar brown-haired pair when he walked out of the base, "Long time no see!"

Storm gave her a smile, "And I'll bet that you two are here without your parents knowing again."

"I already told her but she wouldn't listen!" Oriel protested, "I want to ask for permission from Mommy and Daddy but Estelle said no."

"Because Daddy's answer will always be a 'no' and  _her_  answer will always be 'study hard in your rooms'!" Estelle sighed in annoyance before looking around at the wide training ground outside the base, "At least you're lucky you have some space to-wait, is that a shooting range?"

Storm watched as Estelle ran off to the other side of the field, "I'm starting to think that she just wants to try the training facilities here rather than to visit…" Storm turned to Oriel, who was watching his sister running in excitement to the shooting range, "So uh… how are you doing today, Oriel?"

"The shooting range sounds fun!" completely ignoring Storm's question, Oriel had also run after his sister, "Estelle, I want to try too!"

The male teen chuckled before he followed the two siblings to the shooting range.

* * *

Storm sat on the bench near the shooting range with a complete shock written on his face. He had to teach the two newcomers the basics of using the training busters to shoot at the beginning. Moments later, Oriel got his turn after Estelle let him go first and he had beaten his personal best score on his first try. Estelle, on the other hand, had single-handedly beaten his mother's, Atlas' best score on her first try.

He knew from his parents' stories that the commander was good with shooting but they were never too detailed on how good she was. When he saw the commander's own two kids in action, he could conclude that the commander's shooting skill was way above his mother's and her children had inherited that same skill. His skill was second to his mother, but the commander's family's was far above theirs.

"That felt so good!" Estelle smiled in satisfaction as she and Oriel took a seat next to Storm, "I wonder why Dad didn't bother training us with busters and forcing us with sword training instead…"

"My dad mentioned that Vice Commander Vent was really good with swords," Storm responded, "Maybe that's the reason?"

"But I hate it…" Oriel commented, "My body hurts all over after training with swords…"

"That's not everything, though," Storm turned to Estelle before turning his attention to the object she was pointing at sticking out of his pocket, "We still haven't got our Biometals, but you already have yours and you're already a captain. I mean, you're a year younger than me!"

"I don't think this has anything to do with age," Storm rose from his seat as he took out the Biometal from his pocket, "Besides, I don't like how I've been given two Biometals at once when I was as old as Oriel right now. Getting both of them at once and so soon meant that I was forced to train harder and a lot more."

"At least your parents are still there with you," Estelle commented, prompting for Storm to look at her, "I'm mostly trained by Ashe using my dad's battle data because  _she_  is always busy telling us to study and my dad is too busy obeying  _her_  every command."

Storm looked at her and her disgusted look as she never referred her mother, "Don't hate her too much. She must've suffered as much as my mom has."

"What happened to Chief Atlas?" it was Oriel's turn to ask, "Did she get hurt?"

Storm let out a sigh. It seemed to him that none of her parents had told them about his family's history, "No, but it started during that big Maverick attack years ago."

* * *

The young Storm was hiding in his mother's office as he watched his father running towards the medic wing. From the number of Guardians running around in the hall, the young boy felt that something had happened. He decided that he would follow the Guardians to the medic wing once the hallway wasn't too crowded.

He had snuck into the medic wing and found his father standing beside one of the beds while talking to another man in a different white uniform. There was another man behind him and he was wearing purple clothes and a red scarf over his mouth with some bandages over his left eye. As his father was talking to the man in white, the bandaged man simply lowered his head as if he had failed on something.

Storm couldn't hear what his father was talking about that he walked closer, but the bandaged man noticed his presence. The two exchanged looks for a moment and as if the man knew that the boy couldn't be seen by anyone in the room, the man acted like the boy was never even there. He was feeling grateful to whoever he was and he was able to hear the conversation more clearly.

"I'm sorry, there's nothing else I can do to save them," the man in white said, "Chief Atlas' wounds were too deep that the baby couldn't survive."

A baby? They never mentioned to him that he was about to have a younger sibling!

"H-How…?" the weak voice of the chief was heard.

"The baby was still in their early stage of development, though the symptoms should've been noticeable," the man continued, "Although, I must say that the symptoms on humanoids can be different for each pregnancy."

"Then those times when you felt like you had a bad meal could've been it," his father replied quietly, "Sorry…"

"No… it's my fault…" his mother weakly replied, "I should've… listened to you… then…"

"No," Storm saw the bandaged man from before stood up, "I have failed."

"No, I still owe you for getting Atlas out of there in time," his father rejected, "If you weren't there, she could've…"

"A failure is a failure," the man walked towards the bed, "With this fatal failure, I shall resign from my position in the Guardians."

"W-Wait…" his mother called out, but her calls went deaf to the man's ears as he walked towards the door.

"Siarnaq…" the man stopped, "Whatever you might think about today, you still did what you could for us, for the Guardians. You aren't a failure, but you're a fool for thinking that you are one."

The man didn't reply as he continued his walk out of the room. His name was Siarnaq and he had saved his mother even if he couldn't save his unborn sibling. Just like his father said, his mother would've been killed if Siarnaq hadn't been there. Although that loss had put his mother on a lot of pressure and stress, he was still glad that his mother was alive.

He couldn't feel as hurtful as his mother was, but he knew that he had lost someone that day. It was nobody's fault, but his mother kept blaming herself for that incident. His father had also blamed himself for not being able to prevent his mother from going into the battlefield. That Siarnaq had blamed himself for not being able to do a better job.

* * *

"They never mentioned about my unborn sibling to me at all," Storm continued, "When my mom had her nightmares, she simply told me that it was just a nightmare about her battle at that time."

"Your parents changed too, huh…" Estelle spoke up quietly, "My mom completely shut herself from us since then too… My dad doesn't look like he's changed, but I think he's holding everything in for our sake and become very obedient."

There was a sudden loud banging sound on the other side of the walls, prompting the three to get up from their seats, "W-What was that?"

Storm turned to the base's door and saw a few Guardian members coming out with weapons in their hands, "From the looks of it, something bad," Storm turned back to the two, "Stay here. I have to go and take care of this with the others."

"Wait," Estelle grabbed his arm as he was leaving, "I'm coming too, but don't worry about us getting in your way."

"It's going to be dangerous outside," Storm asked, "Are you sure you're ready? You don't even have a Biometal to help you, you know."

"Don't worry," Estelle casually gave him a peace sign, "I'm an expert in hiding and running away from trouble."

"Fine, just… stay out of any signs of danger-"

There was an explosion coming from the gates leading out to the city before a bunch of mechaniloids came pouring into the field. Some of the Guardian members on standby had started dealing with the Mavericks, but they obviously need the power of a Chosen One to help them.

* * *

"They WHAT?!" Vent yelled in the hallways of the airship, "They never told me that they would be travelling to the city!"

" _It's true, Vice Commander,"_  Atlas' voice came from the communicator,  _"Storm and the other Guardian members are dealing with those mechaniloids right now but I still can't get in touch with Aeolus to help."_

"Don't worry, I'll be right over there," Vent cut the connection and ran towards the transerver room to head towards the city.

Even if Vent had stayed away from the control room, he had completely forgotten that his conversation with Atlas could still easily be heard through the commander's network.

"You broke your promise…"


	6. Showdown at the City

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well... it's been... a while...? Sorry it took so long to update this, but I wasn't planning for it to take this long. My project deadlines were keeping me from writing for the past few weeks and then there's the writer's block...  
> Now here's the new update: finally an action scene coming from the new generation of Mega Man!

"Yes?" a man with long green hair tied into a loose ponytail put a hand over the communicator on his ear, "I'm still in class. Can't you wait until class is over?"

" _Forget about the class, get over here already!"_  a woman's angry voice came from the communicator, loud enough for the class of young humanoid kids and reploids behind him to hear,  _"Storm is out there fighting those mechaniloids! I can't do anything to help him without Model F!"_

The man let out a sigh as he put his free hand over his eyes, "I thought I already told you to bring the clone! You know Storm hasn't been trained enough for field battles more than anyone!"

" _Save the arguments for later, you idiot!"_  the woman yelled once more,  _"You will get here Aeolus, and fast!"_

"W-Wait, Atlas!" the communication ended with a click before he could respond. He turned back to his class and saw the anticipating stares he was getting from his students before he sighed, "Class is dismissed early for today only. Make sure to finish your project by next week and don't forget to study for a quiz tomorrow."

The man, Aeolus, left quickly as the sounds of children whining and complaining echoed as he ran through the hallways and out of the building. He reached for his light green coat's pocket as he stepped outside and flew away in the green armor he used to fight in. He had to go quickly before he and Atlas could experience another nightmare like how it was years ago.

* * *

"Hah!" Storm, armed with a pair of buster guns and the familiar red armor had slammed both of his busters to the ground to create a wave of flames towards the incoming Diadrakes.

The attacks hit the dragon mechaniloid, but the fire wasn't strong enough to knock them down. He tried digging his heels in when both of them tackled him, but the second dragon mechaniloid managed to knock him back. When the first one was about to return with another hard tackle, he slammed one of his buster guns square on its face to knock it away. With the first one taken out, Storm fired a small bomb from his buster guns at the second Diadrake, which exploded on its body.

Once he had taken care of the two bigger mechaniloids, he looked at his sides where the other Guardian members were fighting. While they looked more experienced in the battlefield compared to he was, the strength of their weapons weren't enough to take the approaching mechaniloids in one hit. He had to help them by modifying his bullet path to help with some chip damage against them.

Estelle and Oriel couldn't do anything but watch helplessly by the base entrance before Atlas came out from the building, "Kids, take shelter inside! This is too dangerous for civilians to be around here!"

"But Chief…" Estelle turned to look at Storm once more, who was shooting at a pair of flying Galleons, "Storm is…"

"He's going to be… fine…" Atlas finished her sentence slowly as she watched the bullets the Galleons were going before she saw one of them hitting one of the loose roof plates above them, "Look out!"

Before the two siblings could completely aware of her warning was for, Atlas had already dived towards them and the heavy metal plate fell behind her. The loud clanging sound of the fallen metal had distracted Storm for a moment, "Tch. You guys are playing dirty."

Storm slammed his buster guns to the ground, damaging any nearby mechaniloids while sending him to the air as he changed into his Model H form. He swung his twin sabers to send out a swirling tornado to immobilize the attackers as he ran back to his mother and friends.

"S-Storm! What are you doing here?! Get back out there!" Atlas scolded, "Leave the commander's children to me!"

"You-" a heavy object happened to fall behind Storm as he stopped talking and turned around, seeing the shadow of a big figure with a fluttering cape behind him. He glanced nervously at the three behind him before tossing an item behind him, "Fine, use this."

"Model… F…" Atlas looked at the red Biometal as she held it in her shaking hands, "I…"

With his small task done, Storm summoned more tornadoes to send the newcomer flying away. Unfortunately, the figure was too heavy for Storm's wind-based attacks to completely budge him from his spot. The figure moved his big hand to his back, taking out a big cannon from behind, but Storm managed to send a ball of lighting paralyze him before he could aim.

With Storm finally managed to push the paralyzed newcomer to give Atlas some space, the brown-haired woman managed to transform herself as she stood in front of Estelle and Oriel. Compared to the battle-ready Storm, Atlas stood still on her place while she was shaking as she pointed her buster guns at the nearest Gyrocutters.

"C-Chief, why are you shaking?" Oriel asked innocently.

"N-No, I'm not…" Atlas nervously before seeing that her hands were clearly shaking uncontrollably, "Maybe I am… I haven't been out here for years…"

"Guh!" the sound of Storm being knocked down to the ground by the figure's cannon got the three's attention.

"No…" Atlas looked at Storm in fear as her transformation was starting to undo itself, "Not… again… no… more…"

The Guardian Chief's breathing became faster as she fell to her knees and her armor was gone. She went deaf to the calls of the two nearby along with the loud thud as the red Biometal hit the metal floor. Her mind went back to replay the moments from her last fight over and over again, with the same words repeating itself in her head.

" _The baby couldn't survive…"_

* * *

Storm rolled aside to avoid being flattened by the big cannon his opponent was holding, until the figure decided to fire a few homing missiles which he didn't expect as he took the hits directly. Some of the missiles had also hit the ground around him, covering his surroundings with a cloud of black smoke. He couldn't see anything with thick smoke around him, so he summoned a bigger tornado to clear the air around him.

Once his vision was clear enough to see, Storm was met with a charging cannon aimed at him at point-blank range. He barely dodged the laser cannon as he dashed sideways, letting the fatal beam struck and completely annihilated a big part of the building's edge. He looked at the newly-created hole nervously as he imagined what could've happened to him if the attack hit him instead. Along with the big hole, Storm was expecting to see his friends along with his mother nearby, though one friend was missing from the spot.

"Stop iiittt!" Storm turned around the moment he heard the familiar voice and saw the charging teen as she was holding an iron pole-like object above her head, "Don't hurt my friend!"

The big newcomer casually looked at Estelle as she closed the distance and tried hitting him with the object she was holding. From Storm's point of view, the pole didn't even make him twitch as he took the hits without showing any sort of pain or causing any visible dents on the newcomer's green armor. She looked like she was making a fool of herself as the newcomer simply stared at Estelle as she restlessly hit him around.

"Stop it already, Estelle!" Storm called out to her, "This guy isn't at your level!"

"I already did," Estelle spoke up as she was still swinging her pole around, "my own sword training!"

The big newcomer's eyes glowed red as he took his cannon in his hands once more, ignoring the flailing teen trying to damage him. Storm noticed that the big cannon had showed signs of changing shape, though Estelle was still too busy trying to get the bigger figure to fall. He readied himself as the cannon was still changing before quickly dashing towards them to grab Estelle before a huge knife fell on top of them.

At the last second, Storm changed his plan and pushed her away instead as he quickly pulled out his sabers to block the incoming sawtooth bayonet knife. The force was too much for him that he was sent crashing to the ground, creating a small crater around him. He stared into the newcomer's glowing red eyes and the scar across his face as he tried pushing the bigger figure off him, though the knife slowly made its way past Storm's crossed sabers.

Noticing the incoming sharp object, Storm tried putting one of his feet on the big newcomer's abdomen as he tried pushing him aside with the force from his jets. The force proved to be enough to send the figure rolling away to the base. He expected his mother to be ready to send him away with her buster shots, though his mother was curling on the ground while shaking continuously.

The big newcomer took this as an opportunity as he gave a sign with his hand and more mechaniloids charged in past the other fighting Guardians, who had their numbers greatly reduced. Storm took a quick glance at Estelle as she was rubbing off the dust from the minor scratches from the fall earlier before using his jets to dash faster in front of his mother and Oriel. He held his sabers lowly as he scanned the enemies in front of him.

He was already exhausted enough from using his strength on his jets to move faster and tornadoes to attack, but the enemies he had to face on his own were still too many and too strong. The mechaniloids were marching in through the final layers of defense as the last standing Guardian member had fallen and the big figure was standing in the middle of them with another beam cannon attack being charged up. He ignored his fatigue and the fact that his transformation was starting to fade as he readied his sabers once more.

It was too late for him, as the cannon had already charged up before Storm could take another step and the green armor covering his body had already disappeared. The green Biometal had replaced the sabers he was holding before as he faced the incoming laser attack. His legs refused to move and he had no other choice but to take the attack head on without any form of defense as he braced himself and closed his eyes.

But the attack never hit him.

A force of wind was blown from behind him as he opened his eyes and saw the big figure in front of him lying on the ground, paralyzed. Another figure with identical green armor descended between him and the newcomer with the exact same twin sabers in his hands, "I have a feeling that this wouldn't happen if your mother isn't being so stubborn."

A feeling of relief came to Storm as he let out a small smile, "Father…"

Aeolus turned to his son with a stern look on his face, "You're not ready to be out on the battlefield yet. You still need to master using Model H's power and don't focus too much on improving your control over Model F."

"Y-Yes, Sir!" Storm replied nervously before he noticed that the big figure had slowly got back to his feet, "Is it fine for me to watch you fight him?"

Aeolus turned to the big figure as he had commanded the remaining mechaniloids to charge in before turning back to his son, "I won't need to do much here. There are two others coming for backup, as well as some sort of business they need with this reploid," Aeolus turned to the big reploid, "Who are you and what's your connection with either the Guardians or the Hunters?"

The big reploid stood still as he glared at the older Chosen One before putting his cannon beside him, "I don't have a name anymore. I am only created bearing the creation code WP-002 with the base body of a reploid named Craft."

"Craft?" Storm turned to his father from the surprised tone of his voice, "Where have I heard that name…?"

* * *

The sound of explosions interrupted their conversation as the mechaniloids, which had got closer to the base, were slowly either shot or cut down. The reploid noticed the decreasing number of his army as he took his cannon once more but turned against the Chosen One, "If you want more answers, try and find my creator. With his powerful creations, I highly doubt that you will know what you want before being taken out by them."

The reploid raised his hand and as if on cue, the remaining mechaniloids stopped their charge and retreated. Among the sea of mechaniloids, the two backup fighters arrived and the sight of them got the reploid's attention.

"You…" Vent looked at the reploid in surprise, "You survived the fall from the airship back then…"

The reploid was as shocked as he was, though for a different reason, "It… it can't be… ugh…" the reploid was holding his head as if in pain as the red glow slowly disappeared from his eyes, "Ze… ro…?" the reploid winced in pain before his red eyes were glowing red once more as he dashed off and away from them.

"W-What was that…?" Ashe asked in confusion as she watched the reploid disappeared into the sea of retreating mechaniloids.

"He was there at that time," Vent spoke up as he undid his transformation while walking towards the group of five near the base, "That reploid was there when the airship was attacked those years ago… He was…"

"Daddy!" Vent's train of thoughts were interrupted as Oriel ran towards him, followed by Estelle.

"Oh, good to see you two are safe," Vent gave his children a smile, though his smile soon faded as he let out a sigh, "And of course, you're both grounded for leaving without a word."

With Estelle and Oriel complaining in the background, Aeolus had already transformed back to his human form and approached Atlas, who was still curling up by the wall. Seeing his wife still being unresponsive after his arrival, Aeolus let out a sigh and turned to Storm beside him, "Storm, can you get the medical team to take the injured and your mother into the medic wing? Everyone and especially your mother need some immediate treatment."

Storm gave him a nod, "Understood."

Aeolus watched as his son left into the building and sat beside Atlas, who wasn't completely aware of his presence. He took her cold and shaking hands as he tried positioning her so that she was leaning on him without her trying to push him away. It wasn't his first time dealing with her trauma of those years ago, but simply being there silently next to her was the only thing he could ever do.


	7. Family Troubles

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another late update, but here it is!

Vent, Ashe, Estelle, and Oriel were walking in silence in the hallways of the Guardian Base. The two adults were taking the lead in silence, but it wasn't clear to the younger ones what kind of silence treatment they were getting. Ashe wasn't being as cheerful and lively as she always, but she didn't look like she was upset. Their father wasn't showing any emotions as well, but he looked tense from the way he was walking.

The four came into a stop in front of the door leading to the control room, but neither adults turned to look at them, "You kids should go back to your rooms," Vent was still looking at the closed door as he spoke, "There are adult matters that we need to handle. Go and wait for us in your rooms."

Vent didn't turn to see if they were listening to him as he had other things he needed to settle. He entered the control room with Ashe, leaving Estelle and Oriel in front of the door as it shut close. Estelle stood still in front of the door, fully aware of her father being tense, even as Oriel was walking away from her.

"Estelle, aren't you coming?" Oriel called out to his sister, "Daddy is going to be angry again if we don't obey."

Estelle shook her head and turned to her brother with a small smile, "It's okay, at least I'm not going anywhere outside this time. I just… need to ask a few questions about training real quick."

Oriel stood quietly for a few seconds as he stared at her in confusion, before he finally nodded in understanding, "Okay… see you later, Estelle…"

"Yeah…" Estelle replied softly as she watched her brother leaving, and was met by more silence as the door in front of her was too thick for her to hear anything clearly.

* * *

"We couldn't catch him then, but there weren't any casualties. A few from the land unit were injured, but nothing serious," Vent had finished his report while avoiding his gaze from looking at Aile, "That's… all we can report for now."

"I have nothing to add either," Ashe simply shrugged, "Since we're done here, can we-"

"You broke your promise," Aile flatly spoke up before rising up from her seat, giving a hard slap across Vent's face, "Estelle and Oriel were right there in the city!" Aile had raised her voice in anger, "They can't fight any of them! What kind of parent are you for letting our kids in the middle of danger like that?!"

"Sorry, they just…" Vent slowly brought his eyes to look at Aile as he held his cheek where Aile had landed her slap on, "No, forget it. I shouldn't have let them go anywhere in the city on their own."

"You know that a simple apology like that isn't enough!" Aile was literally glaring straight at him as she walked closer, "What'll you do if-"

"Stop it already!" the door slid open, surprising everyone in the room as Estelle stepped in, "Stop blaming Dad already! I came to the city on my own will and I brought Oriel along just to visit Storm!"

"Estelle…" Ashe looked at the younger brown-haired girl, who walked towards Aile as she wiped her tears angrily.

"Estelle, don't," Vent responded in a whisper, "You shouldn't talk to your mom like-"

"You're not being a good role model to your brother," Aile's attention shifted to Estelle as they came face-to-face with each other, "You skipped Fleuve's tutoring too often and even brought Oriel to skip tutors with you."

"Maybe I'm not, but so what?!" Estelle pointed her finger directly at Aile, who looked at her in surprise, "When have you been a mom to me?! To Oriel?!"

"Estelle, that's enough!" Vent sternly scolded as he removed Estelle's hand from in front of Aile's face, "You've gone way too far, young lady!"

Estelle's gaze never left her mother's as she forced her hand go from his father's strong grip. She wiped away more of the tears coming down her eyes before pointing at Prairie's room, "Prairie's gone that day… and so did my real mom…" with tears streaming down her face, Estelle pointed at her mother once more, "This new mom doesn't even care about me… no, she doesn't even care about her family! All she knows is chasing down these Mavericks like a maniac!"

Estelle broke into a run as she headed out of the control room with Vent chasing her, "Estelle!"

Ashe watched as the door closed, "That was quite the show that you and your daughter put up there. I'm not a mom, but I think you went a bit too far on your kids. I'm just saying," noticing that she wasn't getting any response, the silver-haired hunter turned to see her friend standing still on her place with tears rolling off her face, "Aile…?"

"I didn't… I didn't mean to…"

* * *

"Estelle, where are you…?" Vent whispered to himself as he ran through the hallways with all doors around him open, but there were no signs of his daughter.

Vent had tried looking into Estelle's room, Oriel's, and even his own room, though Estelle was nowhere to be found. Every possible rooms and places she could possibly access, leaving only the deck to be checked. Hoping that Estelle would be there and not going back to the city, he went out through the door to the sound of someone sobbing.

Estelle was leaning on the wall right next to the door, still not completely aware of her father's arrival at the deck. When he stepped closer to her, Estelle had backed away in defense, "You're going to scold me again, aren't you…?"

Vent shook his head and he gently put his hands over his daughter's shoulders, "Don't worry, I'm not giving you more harsh lectures for today," Vent joined her as he leaned against the wall next to Estelle, "You know, even if you did say something you shouldn't to your mom back then, I think I can say I agree."

"What… what do you mean?" the brown-haired teenager asked between her sniffles.

"Your mom… hasn't always been like this," Vent replied as he let out a sad smile, "She's a kind and caring person, even if there is someone who has always been making her worry all the time. Both of us grew up together as orphans and were taken in by the Guardians, so I've known her for a long time. She cares for others and I doubt that part of her has ever changed even after what happened that time. It's only her ways of showing it that's changed."

Estelle gave him a frown as she shrugged Vent's hands off her shoulders, "I didn't say any of those stuff, Dad. You didn't answer my question."

"Well, not yet," Vent's smile faded away from his face, "I agree that your mom hasn't been like how moms are supposed to do for the past few years. At least, that's pretty much how I see it when I compare it to my experience with my own mom."

"Yeah, okay," Estelle replied with an annoyed tone, "I think like that and I don't like her. Why are you still listening to her, Dad?"

Vent let out a sigh, "Please, Estelle, don't start talking about your mom like that again. And don't say that she doesn't care, because I know that she truly does. It's been really hard for her for all these years after losing Prairie and she's been blaming-"

"But what about me?" Estelle suddenly turned to face her father, slightly teary-eyed, "I was there too when Prairie died!"

"You were still young-"

"Yes, I know I was still just a kid!" Estelle was starting to burst into tears once more, "But… but if I wasn't… Prairie wouldn't…"

Estelle was covering her face with her hands as she tried drowning down the voice of her crying, before she was met with a warm hug. She didn't want to resist, as some warmth was what she had always wanted all these years. She let herself cry in her father's arms as he gently patted her on the back.

"It's never your fault, your mom's fault, or anyone's fault" Vent told her in a whisper, "The attackers did it and it was their fault. None of you were to blame for what happened to Prairie."

* * *

"You saw what happened between you two and you're still being stubborn, Aile," Ashe spoke up in annoyance, "You said it yourself that Estelle takes after her dad a lot, from his curiosity to his tendency to get into trouble. She won't just sit still simply because you tell her so especially when someone is in trouble."

"That's what I'm trying to point out about her," Aile responded, "It's because of her behavior that she needs to be watched over all the time to make sure that none of the Mavericks hurt her!"

Ashe let out an annoyed sigh, "Yeah, I know. But don't you think that you're being way too overprotective to your kids? And especially Estelle?"

"This is the only way of making sure both Estelle and Oriel are safe," Aile replied as she turned her seat around, looking away from Ashe, "I can let anything that happened to Prairie happened to them too. No, not just them. I have to make sure that everyone is safe and away from those Mavericks."

Ashe shrugged, "And here I thought that the old Aile was coming back when I saw you crying. I guess not."

"Everyone's safety is my first priority," Aile responded flatly, "I don't have time for personal affairs."

"Yeah, sure you don't," Ashe wasn't going to believe what she had said just then, but she knew that it was pointless to press the commander even further, "Whatever, I'm just gonna head back to the Hunter's Camp."

"I know you're not," Ashe stopped in her tracks when Aile spoke up, "It's pointless looking for someone who had just left without a word for many years. It's best that you cooperate with the Guardians and help with tracking the Mavericks."

"My answer is still no," Ashe replied without turning her head away from the door, "Unlike the younger Estelle, you don't have the right to tell people what to do. You're the commander of the Guardians, but I'm not officially a member here. You don't have any power to tell me where to go and what to do."

"The Guardians have already made a pact with the hunters," Aile replied, "I still have the control over the hunters, even if not fully in command. Stop your pointless search for Grey and look for Maverick hideout instead. This is the good for many and not just for personal interest."

"I'll be selfish, Aile," Ashe turned away from the door, though Aile refused to turn her seat, "I believe that Grey is an important key to this mess. His disappearance wasn't too long before that day and I'm going to prove you that finding him gets us closer to your goal of complete Maverick destruction."

"Fine," Aile's voice was colder than before, "If that's what you wish, then the Guardians won't help you in any way."

Ashe simply gave her a nod, though she knew that nobody would see it. She left the control room and was heading for the transerver room, until sudden static sound was heard in her communicator, "Ugh… what is this…?"

" _Ashe!"_  Model A floated out of Ashe's pocket,  _"I'm picking up a signal somewhere on the ground! It's the signal for calling some help!"_

"Now that's nice…" the static had slowly quieted down, making it easier for Ashe to actually hear any message transmitted, "Hello? Can you talk? I can help if you can give me the coordinates to your location."

The static died down completely, followed by the sounds of coughing,  _"C… City… outside…"_

The voice wasn't too clear when the transmission was cut off, but it was the voice that Ashe had recognize,  _'That voice… Could it be…?'_


	8. Chosen One of Model X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the longer delay, though it's not intended at all for it to be this long. MS Word decided not to work for me anymore (can't save, can't create new, and all that editing stuff) that I have to use other alternatives to write.

Estelle let out a sigh as she walked through the hallways of the Guardian Base with a blindfold over her eyes. Vent was pushing her to lead her to their destination, but Estelle felt like they had been walking aimlessly for a long time and that she was getting impatient herself.

"Not even a clue, Dad?" Estelle asked impatiently, "I know I like your surprises, but I feel like we've been walking in circles for a while."

"You'll know when we get there!" Estelle could hear the sound of a door sliding open, letting her know that they had entered a room, "Okay, we're here!"

Estelle eagerly opened her blindfold cloth, but her excitement on her face soon faded, "This is Fleuve's lab," Estelle turned to Vent with a disappointed look on her face, "Really Dad? This is your surprise?"

The smile never left Vent's face as he turned to the older researcher and the younger teen, "Fleuve, Storm, is it ready?"

Fleuve gave him a nod before he turned to Storm, who was standing beside him, "Storm, please show Estelle what you're hiding behind your back."

"Alright, but I'm not involved in this decision," Storm walked over to the confused Estelle and took her hand, putting the blue metal object on her hand, "Here. These old men are the ones who came up with this surprise. I'm just here because I happen to be here and your old man dragged me into the plan."

"T-This… this is…!" Estelle ran a hand on the object she had just received with a smile on her face, "Dad, is this really…?" Estelle turned to her father as he held an identical object in his hand.

Vent gave her a nod and a smile, "Congrats, Estelle. You've finally earned yourself the right to have your very own Biometal, Model X."

"Yes… yes!" Estelle lifted the Biometal above her head in excitement, "Yes! I'm now a Mega Man just like Dad and Storm!"

Fleuve let out a cough, getting Estelle attention, "Before your excitement gets yourself in trouble, let us tell you one more thing."

"One more thing?" Estelle asked in confusion.

All eyes in the room turned to Vent, who rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "Y-Yeah… about that…"

"Vice Commander, did you…?" Storm suddenly asked.

"I can't…" Vent shook his head, "I can't get her to agree to this, so yeah… Aile doesn't know about us giving the Biometal to Estelle."

"As I expected," Fleuve commented before turning his attention back to Estelle, "As you've heard from your father, please keep this from your mother. We've decided that giving Model X to you is the best option to do, should another incident with the Mavericks occur once more. We will need an extra hand and you're a suitable candidate."

"I don't feel like I want to tell her anyway," Estelle replied coldly, "She's only obsessed in dealing with those dumb Mavericks instead of taking care of her family anyway," Estelle turned around and headed for the door, "Thanks for the surprise, Dad. I'll go and find Ashe to train together for now."

The room went silent as Estelle left, with Vent looking at the door where his daughter had gone through in worry, "Estelle…"

* * *

"Well, looks like your distress signal made it to me just in time," the silver-haired Hunter commented casually as she leaned on the wall next to the medic wing door.

A blue-haired man was standing beside one of the beds and nodded in response to the Hunter's comment, "I happened to be in the city, so I was thinking that sending a signal asking for help around here should reach someone from the Guardians nearby," the man turned around, showing the red triangle on his forehead as he let out a smile, "Thanks for the quick response, Ashe."

"Thetis," Aile called out to the man as she stood on the opposite side of the bed while watching as Rose tended to the unconscious young girl lying on the bed, "Tell me, is this the work of the Mavericks as well?"

The smile on Thetis' face soon faded as he nodded in response, "Yes, we were having lunch together while we were in the city when they attacked."

"I see…" Aile responded quietly before she headed towards the door, "The rest of the Guardians are still looking into that matter with those Mavericks. For now, you can stay here while Iris recovers."

"O-Okay…" Thetis replied awkwardly as he watched Aile leaving the medic wing without another word, "At least… you're still willing to save my daughter, even if she's humanoid unlike me…"

"Huh?" Ashe turned to Thetis as his eyes never left the closed door, "Did you say something?"

Thetis calmly shook his head, "No, it's nothing."

"Oh well, suit yourself," Ashe gave him a shrug, "If you're feeling curious or you happen to miss being a bullied victim, you can try and get in touch with Atlas."

Thetis let out a chuckle as he walked towards the door, "She's got a family to look after and a whole base of people to lead. I doubt she would come up with more pranks… like the old days…"

"Well, I guess you're right… though are you leaving so soon?" the door in front of Thetis slid open, but instead of leaving the blue-haired man turned to her with a smile.

"I believe that my daughter is in good hands," Thetis turned to her as the smile on his face turned into a more serious look, "Speaking of which, are you still looking for him?"

The cheerful attitude faded from the silver-haired Hunter, replacing her smile with a frown, "Still no luck. But I still believe that he's still alive out there, somewhere…"

Thetis nodded in understanding, turning towards the door once more, "I'm sorry I can't help… I'm still looking for my wife and that's still my main focus for now."

"I'm fine with it. Your wife is more important to you, so I kind of understand," Ashe replied as she watched Thetis leaving the room.

"T-This is…" Ashe turned to the source of the soft voice and saw Rose as she was holding Iris' brown bangs.

"What is it?" Ashe's voice had startled the young nurse as the Hunter approached the bed, though Rose had quickly hid anything that was originally covered by the unconscious girl's hair.

"N-No… I was just… s-seeing things…" Rose nervously shook her head, "P-Please, leave this to me."

Ashe stared at Rose as the nurse continued checking and bandaging any visible external injuries, "O… kay… Well, I guess we're going to count on you to take care of her!"

The door slid open as Ashe was heading out, but the sound of footsteps going away from the door was something that she couldn't miss.

* * *

Estelle was panting as she went down through the elevator, seeing the floor she used to be on slowly getting out of her sight. She held the blue Biometal close to her chest as she recalled the conversation she had accidentally heard until she was caught for the first time when the blue-haired man she had never seen come out from the medic wing.

* * *

"Oh?" Thetis saw the surprised Estelle as they stood in front of the closing door, "Ah, are you Estelle, the daughter of the Guardian's current commander?"

"Ah! Uh…" the brunette looked around, seeing as she was the only one nearby that the man was talking to, "Y-Yes, I am…"

"I see," the man nodded in understanding, "You can call me Thetis. I'm… well, I guess you can say that I'm an old acquaintance of your parents."

Estelle simply gave him a slight bow, not knowing what else to do. She slowly found her head turned to the medic wing, "Is she… is she your daughter?"

"Yeah, but that's about all I can say for now," the warm smile from the man's face disappeared, "I need somewhere else to go, so-"

"U-Um!" the man stopped as Estelle called out, lowering her head as she faced him, "Please… don't tell anyone that I was here!"

Before he could respond properly, Estelle had run to the other direction, "Ah! Wait!"

The door to the medic wing slid open soon afterwards as the silver-haired Hunter was leaving, though she didn't miss the sound of footsteps coming from that direction, "Thetis, who was that just now?"

"N-No one important," he nervously replied, "Just a regular member running through."

"Huh…" Ashe's suspicious gaze was aimed at him, though she wasn't in the mood to dig into any trivial matters, "Okay, I'll be on my way too then…"

"Y-Yes!" Thetis gave her a nod, "Please take care of yourself!"

Ashe didn't bother turning around as she walked away, though she gave him a waving hand as she left.

* * *

Estelle was leaning against the training room's wall as she was catching her breath. Her hands found themselves on the blue Biometal she had just been given before she took it out and stared at it. She had been given something that she had always wanted in her life, but she felt like she wanted more than to just have the Biometal in her hands. She wanted to fight and she wanted to prove that she could take care of herself just fine in the battlefield.

Another thought came to her mind as she walked into the middle of the training room. Her original plan was to have Ashe train her in the buster department, until she heard the old truth she had never heard from the other adults. Ashe had always been like an older sister figure to her after Prairie passed away, but the tone of her voice that she heard a few minutes ago told her that she was also holding out a painful memory from that time.

Not just her, but the man who called himself Thetis had also his own pain that he wasn't telling. There were two missing people from the big fateful battle fifteen years ago, yet neither of her parents had mentioned it at all. If they were so important, shouldn't they be looking for them? Wasn't the Guardians supposed to be helping people and not just tracking down Mavericks to destroy all the time?

The reason was the commander, who was none other than her own mother. The grip on the Biometal got tighter at the thought of her mother, whom she had come to hate due to what she had done. She wasn't being the commander as she was being a tyrant who got stuck in her past. But… she was still willing to help and save Thetis' daughter and the image of her mother being a past-obsessed tyrant was shattered.

Estelle never knew what her mother truly wanted to do, but she couldn't bring herself to try and understand her. In the end, hate was her response but her heart was crying out for the truth rather than the dark path of hate. But… she had been given the chance to find out the truth herself, now that she had the Biometal which could help her fight.

A target board appeared a few meters in front of her as she focused herself to transform, "R-Rock On!"

Estelle could feel the surge of power flowing into her body as solid blue armor started covering her body. A blue helmet was secured on her head to protect it as her right arm had transformed into a buster arm. Calmly, she aimed at the target board as she felt the buster she had charging some energy.

A small shot was fired, hitting the board right in the middle of it, much to her surprise, "W-What…" a satisfied smile was on her face as she admired the burning hole she had just made, "was that…?"

The target board switched itself automatically into a newer one as Estelle took a few steps back. She charged her buster the same way, firing her shot in another bullseye. The excitement of hitting on targets was starting to get into her as she jumped back in excitement while the target board switched again.

Estelle was almost leaning against the wall as she charged her buster, aiming it at the target board. She took the time longer to charge her buster before releasing it, but the force of the shot knocked her against the wall. When she saw the board, the shot had missed a few millimeters from the center but took out most of the upper side of the board.

A sudden sound of slow clapping surprised her as Estelle turned to her side where the sound was coming from to see Ashe clapping for her with Storm on her side with the look of disbelief, "I guess you have your mom's skill alright."

"Ashe! Storm!" Estelle lowered her buster arm before transforming back to her human form, approaching the two newcomers, "Since when are you guys here?"

"Hey, I'm here too!" Estelle turned to the sound of her brother, who had just come out from behind Ashe, "That was so cool, Estelle!"

"Ah!" Estelle rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment, "T-Thanks! I was just trying out stuff, that's all…"

"Yeah, sure…" Storm didn't sound convinced as he commented, "It looks like you're pretty much natural at this like you've done that for a while. It took me a couple of months to finally get used to handling them."

"I don't know…" she turned to look at the Biometal sitting in her hand, "I just feel like… I know what I want to do and… just do it…"

"Well, let's just save this conversation for later on, okay?" Ashe gave her a light tap on her shoulder, "It's getting a bit late and your dad is waiting for us to get something to eat. You know how impatient he is when-"

"You're… Ashe, correct?" a Guardian member had interrupted the Hunter as he stood behind the group while holding a piece of broken disk, "One of the Hunters asked me to give you this."

"A broken disk?" Ashe commented while looking at it without any interest as the Guardian member bowed down before leaving, "This is just a broken junk, not the treasure that worth something!"

"Let me," Storm took the broken disk off her hand, flipping it around as he tinkered around with it, "This should be easy enough for me to fix. Maybe it contains something useful."

"That's just what we'd expect from you!" Estelle commented in excitement, "I'm curious to see what's in it too!"

With a moment of cracking and flipping around, Storm handed the disk back though in the form of a device, "Here. From the looks of it, I think it's more like some sort of a recording device."

"Huh, I guess you've got Aeolus' brains," Ashe commented with a slight surprised look on her face before she turned her attention back to the device in her hands, "Now, let's see what we have here…"

The sound of the button clicking echoed in the empty training room followed by static sounds. The static soon died down to reveal the sound of footsteps before they came into a stop,  _"C… Com…"_

Ashe's eyes grew wide in surprise as the recording stopped there, not budging at all when Storm took back the device from her, "Ugh, great. Looks like the recording is corrupted too. It's something I can't fix, but I think Father can think of something to do with it."

Estelle nodded in agreement, "Okay, let's take it to your old man later then," when she turned to see Ashe, she saw that the silver-haired Hunter stood there, not moving, "Uh… are you okay?"

"T-That…" Ashe spoke up, stammering, "Grey… that was Grey's voice…"

"G-Grey?" Estelle and Oriel had a questioning look on their faces, though Storm was fully aware of the name.


	9. New Clues

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not my old 'usual' schedule to update and more words than probably most chapters up until now, but here's some action!

The green-haired Chosen One was flipping the device in his hands while running his fingers around different parts of the device before finally putting it down on the table, sliding it across to the silver-haired Hunter, "There. That should fix it."

"Wow! It looks new!" Estelle, who was sitting next to the Hunter, commented in amazement.

The Chosen One let out a sigh, "Seriously. You need to stop calling me on fool's errands like this, Ashe."

"You're the only one we can ask, Aeolus," Vent spoke up from beside him, "I don't think Aile would like it if we ask Fleuve to fix it."

Aeolus gave him a nod in agreement, "True enough, but that doesn't mean that I have to be the one to fix it. There are other Hunters here who can help."

The green-haired Chosen One had pointed at the Hunters walking around in the Hunter's Camp cafeteria where the group was sitting in.

"Yeah, yeah," Ashe brushed off the complaints surrounding her as she took the device in her hands, "Let's save all the complaints later and listen to this already!"

"Storm and I aren't staying," Aeolus had risen from his seat, followed by his son, "We need to head back soon to check on Atlas."

"Ah, that's right," the vice commander turned to the father and son as they were going to leave, "I hope she gets better soon. Things aren't going to be pretty with a competent chief being out of commission."

Aeolus only gave him a silent nod without any change in his expression before he left with Storm as Ashe was trying to listen to the recording device behind him.

"Let's see…" the Hunter was looking around the device until she came across a slider, "There. This should make the recording loud enough to hear."

Loud static noises were the first things they could hear, though the static soon died down and replied by the sound of footsteps on a metal terrain. The footsteps came to a stop and followed by some rustling noises.

" _Come in, Prairie. This is Grey reporting."_

The familiar voice was heard from the recording, much to the group's surprise.

" _I found the hidden door you're looking for. It looks like the data you found before are correct after all."_

"Wait, what hidden door?" Vent interrupted suddenly, prompting Ashe to pause the recording, "Prairie never told us anything at all…"

"I'm not sure," Ashe responded as she shook her head with a pained look in her eyes, "I can think of something, but I don't know why Prairie never told you guys when you are obviously part of the Guardians."

"What's on your mind then?" the brown-haired vice commander was looking at her in a serious expression, "Even if it was only a few months different, you know Grey more than me or Aile do."

"Vent, don't you remember the time when Grey and I took down Albert years ago?" the Hunter's eye clearly told him that she was onto something, "You told us about going with the paths we chose, right?"

"Uh… yeah?" Ashe let out an irritated sigh after seeing the confusion on Vent's face. It was obvious enough to her that he had forgotten.

"The path he decided to choose… was to find out about himself," she gave her answer as she closed her eyes, recalling the past events of many years ago, "I'm a humanoid and a distant relative of Albert, that much I can find out. But Grey? He's a reploid but somehow has Albert's genes and he wanted to find out why and how. His curiosity might led him to being missing a few months before… that happened…"

Vent responded with a silent nod, "For now, let's just continue listening to the recording. Maybe we can at least know where the last time he made in contact with Prairie."

Ashe gave him a nod before playing the recording once more. After moments of more clanging footsteps, the same voice was heard.

" _I think someone has been using this lab recently…"_  there was a short pause along with beeping sounds around,  _"No, this is…!"_  silence followed, before a loud thud was heard as if a blunt object had hit a thick glass material,  _"I'm sorry, Prairie. I have to end this report here for now while I'm checking all the data here. Grey, out."_

The recording ended with a beep, leaving the group curious about the thing which had surprised Grey in the recording.

"S-So… are we going to check this place and thing out…?" Estelle asked nervously, breaking the silence on the table.

Vent and Ashe turned to each other, nodding, before the older brunette turned to the younger ones as Ashe walked away from the table, " _We_  will try and check it out. The two of you should go back to the Guardian Base or your mother is going to be worried."

The stern look on her father's face told her that any kind of argument she was going to put up would be useless, so obeying would be her only option for now, "Fine!" Estelle let out an irritated sigh, "I'll be your really well-behaved daughter who can actually transform to help out."

"We won't be fighting anyone, Estelle," it was Ashe's turn to speak up as she returned to the group, "You might have your mother's skills, but you're still inexperienced."

"Then fighting on the front line will give me-"

"No!" Vent's voice was stern, though there was a hint of desperation in it, "Please Estelle, just be a good girl and stay out of trouble. I know that you have a Biometal to protect yourself, but it's best that you just stay out of this problem."

Estelle only gave him a look before slowly nodding, "Okay, fine…"

"Come on, Vent," Ashe was the first one to walk away from the group, "Let's go. We should look into this soon before Aile finds out."

The vice commander only gave her a silent nod before leaving as well, leaving only the brunette siblings at the table, "Come on Estelle, let's get going too. Mom is going to be-"

"Sorry, Oriel," Estelle gave him a big smile, which was rare enough coming from her that the younger of the two was looking at her in fear, "I need to see Storm for a bit, so you just go on ahead, okay?"

"Um… okay…" Oriel nodded while still in doubt with what his sister was trying to do before leaving as well.

With Oriel out of sight, Estelle put her hands together in excitement, "Alright! Now let's grab Storm from the base and head out for the younger generation to finally do their thing!"

* * *

"This is not what I signed up for," Storm let out a sigh before he blew away the cobwebs he managed to trap himself in with his tornado attack, while Estelle was casually looking around the old lab, "Besides, didn't you mention that we're not supposed to be involved in the adult's problems?"

"Yeah," she replied casually as she looked around the broken capsules in the room, "It's their problem and we're not getting involved in it. We're just going to explore this old lab and be gone before they know we're here."

Storm sighed in annoyance, "If we're caught, I'm not bailing you out even if you're Commander Aile's daughter."

"I'm not her daughter," Estelle replied coldly, looking at her with anger in her eyes, "I'm not that cold-hearted witch's daughter! I refuse to acknowledge it!"

Storm didn't respond, fully aware of the bitter relationship between Estelle and her mother. It was best that he didn't bring that part up, knowing that she got her temper issues from her father.

There were only sounds of footsteps hitting the metal floor as Storm looked around while Estelle was trying to know about the two capsules in the room. The screens showing the information of the capsules' former owners were both cracked, but the commands were still functional. The only issue she had would be the fact that she had little to no knowledge about technical stuff.

"Hey, uh… Storm?" the brunette turned over to her friend, who in turn looked at her after hearing his name being called, "Can you take a look at this? You know that I'm not good at this… thing."

"You only mentioned that we were just going to explore, not to pry into some old data," the green-haired Mega Man had given her a stern look, though with Estelle's rebellious attitude, it wouldn't be effective on her.

"It's part of the exploration," Estelle motioned her hand to tell him to come to her side, "Come on,  _my junior_.  _Your senior_  here needs your help here!"

Storm groaned in annoyance as he gave up and approached her, "Fine! But just because I'm a year younger than you that doesn't mean that I'm  _your_ junior. To be exact, I'm more experienced in-"

"Details, details!" the brunette had shrugged his complaints casually as she moved aside to let the green-haired teen look into the screen for information.

His fingers danced around the screen with his attention focused solely on the information displayed on the cracked screen. The cracks weren't bad enough to limit his sight from any important information, though it would be a nightmare for Estelle, as she was never good at working on anything that required actual thinking. With a bit more typing to be done, the screen showed a few numbers and letters which made no sense to any of them.

"What's this?" Estelle had forced herself back to look at the numbers and letters on screen, "WP-002? Who named someone like that anyway?"

The code hit Storm with realization as he remembered the battle in the city, "WP-002… is a project code…"

Storm suddenly rushed towards the other capsule, typing like crazy on the screen, much to Estelle's dismay, "H-Hey! Tell me something already!"

Storm had slammed his Biometal-enhanced fists to the screen once he was done typing, "This one is WP-003… What do these codes mean…?"

"Storm!" Estelle almost yelled to call out to him, finally pulling him out from his thoughts, "Got anything to share?"

The green-haired teen gave her a nod, "In fact, I do, but-"

The sound of something exploding in the next room had interrupted him and prompted the two of them to direct their attention to the door leading to the next room, "W-What was that just now?"

"Whatever that was, I don't think it's good news," Storm turned to Estelle, who was also looking at him, "Come on, Estelle. Let's go!"

She gave him a nod in response as they both dashed away, though towards different directions. When she saw Storm dashing past her, she stopped in her tracks and called out to him, "Hey, where are you going? Someone in there might need our help!"

"Are you crazy?!" Storm responded in anger, "Vice Commander Vent and Ashe would most likely be there to help too! Do you want us to get caught loitering around here?!"

"The Guardians are supposed to help people in trouble, right?" Storm's anger subsided for a moment, "Maybe they could be there too, but shouldn't the people's safety be our priority first compared to ours?"

"Well, it's-" the green-haired teen drew a blank when trying to come up with a comeback, seeing Estelle's persistence on helping along with the code he had been taught for years of his training, "Fine, let's just go and get this over with!"

* * *

"Gah!" the red-armored brunette was thrown against the wall, falling down next to the injured silver-haired Hunter, "Even with the two of us… he's…"

"Give that back," a cold glare was visible underneath the attacker's black and white helmet as he pointed a glowing short knife towards Ashe, who was holding a device closely to her chest as she had transformed back, "That does not belong to you."

Ashe shook her head, "No… this is… a clue for our missing friend…"

"Code WP-001 does not have something called 'friend'," the masked attacker was ready to throw his knife at her, "Perish."

"Not so fast!" before the knife could be thrown, a blast of energy had shot his wrist that he dropped the knife.

There was no signs of pain on his face, only the same cold glare still visible under the helmet. Vent weakly turned to the direction where the shot had come from, only to be shocked when he saw people who weren't supposed to be there in the first place, "Estelle! Storm!"

"H-Huh?" the younger brunette noticed the familiar voice, shocked that it was her father who was calling, "Uh-oh…"

Estelle had expected to get an earful right there, but the pained look and the concern in his eyes told her otherwise, "R-Run! This guy isn't someone you can deal with even with the two of you together!"

"Please accept my apology, Vice Commander," Storm spoke up as he stood firmly beside his friend, "I tried to stop her, but it seems like the two of you at least need some help to get to safety."

Estelle nodded in agreement, pointing her buster at the robotic figure in front of them, "We're not here to fight. We're just going to immobilize him somehow to buy some time to escape."

"Somehow," Storm let out a smirk as he got his pink sabers ready in both of his hands, "I can think of something…"

"No! Don't!" Ashe called out desperately, though her pleas went deaf to the two as they both charged at the masked man.

Estelle and Storm separated as they were getting closer to the man, with Estelle going to the left and aimed her buster for small shots and Storm flying up with his jets. While Estelle's buster shots were dodged easily by the man, Storm had put his sabers together to form balls of electricity over and over until there wasn't much space left for the man to move around.

The brunette Mega Man was going to end the seemingly easy fight with a charged shot, only for the attack to hit thin air as the man had disappeared from their sight. Sharp pain could be felt from her back as the man was floating around with his big spinning shuriken, dropping knives on the ground which Vent and Ashe had to dodge as well.

Storm countered with his three-hit saber combo aimed upwards, dropping the man to the ground as the previous electric balls disappeared. He used his jets to propel himself towards him as they clashed between sabers and knives, until the man suddenly ducked from Storm's crossed sabers and kicked him hard on the stomach. With him sliding through the room, the man threw more knives at him but only to be shot accurately by Estelle with her buster.

Estelle had kept her distance with her shooting out her buster as the man tried catching up to her, leaving her no time to charge for a more powerful shot to hit him. Even when he was seemingly distracted by the brunette's shots, the man could still skillfully avoid Storm's slashes and tornadoes by spinning himself around and landed on his spinning shuriken once more.

With a combination of raining knives and the man himself throwing more knives from above, the two weren't given any opening to attack at all, until another armored fighter decided to join in with a vertical slash. The saber didn't hit the shuriken, but the shockwave caused by it managed to knock the raining knives out of the way for Estelle and Storm to counter.

A half-charged shot from Estelle managed to knock the man off his shuriken, but he wasn't aware of Storm's presence behind him with a bigger tornado he had created. The man fell to the ground after being spun and electrified by Storm's tornado, though he could easily get back up with a crack on his helmet and a small tear on the cloth behind him, which was now clearly visible to them.

"You remind me of someone," the man turned to Vent, who was forced to transform back due to exhaustion, "Your name?"

"Vent…" the vice commander replied as he was panting, "I… never know you…"

"Code WP-003. Base body of Hidden Phantom," the man replied before turning to Ashe, who glared at him as she held the device in her arms defensively, "Keep it for now. I shall retrieve it later for my lord."

Without another word, the man left with a puff of smoke, leaving the mess from the fight earlier.

"Well, shall we go home now?" Estelle innocently spoke up, walking out of the room, only for her to be stopped in her tracks.

"Not so fast, young lady," Vent sternly told her as he used the last of his strength to pull his daughter to his side to face him, "Why are you and Storm here when I clearly told you to go back to the base? And especially why Storm is here when he's supposed to be taking care of Atlas?"

Storm had transformed back and saluted, "Sir! Mother is doing fine after some intensive care from the medical unit. I'm allowed to go because Estelle," the teen looked at the nervous young brunette with a glare, "told me that she needed a friend to explore an old lab."

Estelle turned back to look at her father's angry eyes as she laughed nervously, "T-This counts as an exploration, right?"

Vent continued to give her a glare for a moment, until he let out a disappointed sigh, "What am I going to do with you…?"

"Before that," the silver-haired Hunter spoke up, breaking the father-daughter argument as she showed the device she was holding, which had the same shape as the one they were given earlier, "When you guys were talking in the cafeteria before, I asked the Hunter who found the other device that he found it in here. Looks like this is the only new recording we have for now, but I think we should get our injuries taken care of before we look into this new clue."

Storm gave her a nod, "Yes, but I might have some other clues that might be useful. I'm still quite unsure what these are supposed to mean, but the capsules in the room next door apparently belonged to the person we fought just now and that Craft from the city. Or at least, that's how I believe it."

"What do you mean?" Estelle was the one to ask, "How do you figure out that they were actually from this place?"

"The codes," Storm replied shortly as he looked at the other three in the room, "If I recall correctly, Craft mentioned having a creation code of WP-002. That man we fought just now mentioned that he had the code WP-003. I saw those codes on the screens for the capsules next door."

Vent stood in silence for a moment before shaking his head, "I don't like the sound of this. For now, let's head back to the base and get ourselves healed without Aile knowing what's going on," he let out a sigh as he turned to his daughter with a disappointed look on his face, "There's enough troubles for today and I  _really_  don't need another one to add."

Estelle lowered her head in guilt as they all walked out of the room, "S-Sorry… Dad…"


	10. Guilt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would usually be the beyond-help slacker to copy-paste my comments from FFN, but it's not the case this time. I notice that this story is getting a lot more attention lately in here compared to in FFN, so let me thank you all the awesome people here for the kudos! I can't say that it's my very best work in general, but I really appreciate all the attention. So here's a short chapter for an update!

The four Mega Men had headed back to the Guardian Base, going to the medic wing to get their injuries taken care of. The injuries weren't fatal enough for any of them to require staying longer than a few minutes, leading to Ashe heading back to the Hunter's Camp immediately after handing over the previous recording to Vent. Storm and Estelle headed out next, each going back to get some training after an almost one-sided battle. Vent was the last to leave, with Aile walking over to him to confront him.

"Yet you broke another promise," she told her husband coldly, "I saw Estelle and Storm leaving the medic wing a while ago."

"Sorry, but it can't be helped," he had walked past her to the direction of the elevator, but stopped a few meters behind her, "Aile, I think we need to talk again. Should the control room be good for it?"

Aile only gave him a silent nod, slowly following behind him as they both headed up to the control room in silence. The brunette commander went over to her commander seat in silence, completely ignoring the devices Vent had pulled out.

"Here," Vent had put the recording devices on Aile's desk, next to the monitor, "Ashe and I found this. It's a clue to Grey's whereabouts and I want you to hear it."

"I don't need to," Aile turned her seat around to face Vent as her face remained unreadable, "I've mentioned it several times already that finding him isn't our priority. Mavericks come first and so is the safety of the kids like Storm and Estelle. They're not supposed to be fighting-"

"I know!" Vent had raised his voice, which was a rare thing for him to do so, "I know… but I have my own rights to decide about them, especially after I see them fight myself."

"They're not strong-"

"They are, Aile, they  _are_  stronger that we thought them to be!" the vice commander curled his hands into fists, holding back his anger, "I know it's hard for me to admit it, but… we're not as strong as we used to be years ago. Us humanoids don't have machines as muscles and our muscles are aging day by day. I can't keep up with Estelle's or Storm's speed and Ashe's shots aren't as accurate as they used to be. That cost us our injuries from that fight."

"As long as we're still alive, we can still fight," her reply was simple and firm, "There's no need to argue with that. If you can't fight, then the only explanation would be that you're not trained enough."

"Not when I have two active kids to look after because their mother wouldn't take up the responsibility to play her role," Vent's tone was sarcastic as he looked at Aile with a look of both anger and disappointment, "I honestly don't want to say that, but that's just the way it is."

There was a short pause before Aile continued with her side of the argument, "There are other people in the base you can ask other than their mother. Their mother is too busy trying to maintain peace and make sure that they're safe from any harm. It's their father who put them in the face of danger before they were ready."

Vent let out a sigh, not wanting to continue the argument, and turned his back to her, "You forgot your promise then, but I still remember it like it was yesterday. It's not like I'm breaking my own promise to you, but rather test them to see if they're ready to be a part of the world once they've grown up. Both you and I are aware of that, because we both grow up as orphans taken in by Boss."

Vent's statement had silenced the brunette commander. Her face was hidden from her bangs as she lowered her head while maintaining her position in the commander's chair.

The vice commander turned his head around, looking at Aile with a sad expression on his face, "You know, I want to say better things to you. I know that I'm hurting so much in the inside for saying bad things in front of you just like that. It's been too long that we've been together but I haven't seen you smile for years," he turned his face away from her once more, "You've changed, I've changed, but even with this situation, I'll still love you and I always will…"

There was silence in the room before Vent made his way out of the control room without another word.

A single tear made it out from the commander's eyes. The operators weren't present in the room, making her on her own in the control room to let her pent-up emotions pour out. She knew that she was being distant, blaming herself for the tragedy a few years prior. She deserved to be blamed and hated, but part of her only wanted to go back to that time so that she wouldn't be so miserable bearing the guilt.

Only her daughter hated her, but in the young brunette's eyes she could see that she only wanted her mother to come back. She didn't truly hate her as she only longed for a female figure guiding her in the form of a mother. She could clearly tell herself, as looking at Estelle felt like she was looking at herself when she lost her mother to the mavericks. Her heart was lonely and it was her own fault that her daughter had to be in the position she used to be in.

And then there was that promise that she and Vent made, a few days after Estelle was born.

" _It's a promise. We're going to raise her as her parents and we'll always be by her side."_

She broke her promise first and yet she had forced Vent to keep his promise to her. Even if it was for the sake of their children, it was unfair of her to force something and someone to Vent and Vent alone. What had she done for them? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Hardly anything parenthood to her children and that was all because she was stuck in her own guilt and sorrow.

It was too late to turn everything back in time. The guilt was getting unbearable to her as she had treated everyone like dirt, yet they still had her back. She didn't deserve it at all. She wasn't fit for Vent's love or her friends' warmth at all.

There was nothing she could do to repent, until she turned her chair around and noticed the recording devices Vent had left on her desk. She wiped her flowing warm tears away before she slid the devices closer to her side to play each of them.

She took a moment of silence as her mind raced to the time when Prairie was still around. The recordings had brought out a distant memory which she never got to ask when she first found out. Putting the recording devices aside, she typed on the monitor a few times, bringing up the view she recalled having seen many years before.

It was an old archive, but it was locked behind a password which the brunette commander never knew. Her gaze went back to the recording devices once more, remembering the static voices before and after Grey's reports as the silence of the room had enabled her to listen to the recording more clearly. She closed her eyes as she focused on her hearing while listening into the recordings once more.

A mechaniloid. The term slowly popped out in her mind as she listened into the second recording. She had concluded that Grey had found the old lab that someone had asked him to find, but the missing Hunter had also found some data which had taken his interest. A bit of silence would make the listeners think that the recording was over, but the static noise came after a few seconds of silence.

She transferred the recording data into her computer, analyzing the static noise with the bits of knowledge she had gained for being the commander for years. Once it was clear enough for hearing, she played the rest of the recording in a hurry before anyone had come back to the control room.

"…  _This… this is…! A giant mechaniloid?! But why is it here?!"_

There were vague sounds of footsteps, sounding more like clanging metals.

" _It's got gold armor all over its body and it looks like… a knight?"_

' _A gold-armored mechaniloid…?'_  the brunette commander thought as the description clicked on her mind,  _'I think… I've seen something like that before…'_

* * *

"Prairie, it looks like the mechaniloids were just-" Aile had stepped into the control room to file in her report, only to see that the commander on duty was busy on her computer, "Prairie?"

The brunette took a few steps forward towards the commander's chair, trying to see what the pink-clad commander was paying attention to. From the popup monitor, all she could see was a knight with golden armor with some data next to the image, though the letters were too small for her to read.

"Is that a new type of security system?" it was one thing that she could come up with, but her suddenly speaking had surprised the commander.

"A-Aile!" Prairie quickly turned back to the monitor as she removed the popup, "I-I'm sorry, how did your mission go?"

"It's okay, the mechaniloids were just malfunctioning," Aile had given her short report, "I'm not sure what happened, but the store manager told me that he got that new model just a few months ago."

"I… see…" Prairie responded while glancing over to her monitor, even though one of her subordinate was standing there in front of her, "Okay, that should be enough mission for you today. You should get back to Oriel before he starts crying again."

The brunette let out a laugh, "Sorry if Oriel is bothering your work today, Prairie. I think I should tell Vent to keep an eye on him at all times when he's a bit… clingy…"

"No, it's fine," the pink-clad commander let out a smile, "Having younger kids like Estelle and Oriel around in the base makes the atmosphere here more lively. Oh, and speaking of liveliness…" she directed her gaze to her room, prompting Aile to do so as well, "Estelle was being very energetic today that she had been running around the base until she felt asleep in my room."

"She's got her hyperactive trait from Vent, I'd bet," she commented as she walked over to the commander's room, "Okay, I'll pick her up and put her to bed in her room. Sorry if it's a bother to you."

"It's fine, really," the commander spoke up, pausing as she was waiting for Aile to come out with the sleeping Estelle in her arms, "She might be a candidate for the next commander, if I have to say. She seems to like hanging around the control room."

"Maybe, but we'll see that in a few years," instead of heading out for the door, the brunette had approached the commander instead, "Oh yeah, what was it that you were looking before? Was that a new model of mechaniloid?"

"E-Eh?" the commander stole another quick glance at her monitor, making sure that it wasn't showing anything that she didn't anyone to see, "A-Ah, it's nothing. It was just… an old archive I found in the Guardian Base's database. Yes, that's just it!"

Aile looked suspiciously at the commander's nervous look, though the extra weight in her arms forced her to ignore what she had seen. Her first daughter was getting a bit more heavier for her to carry around and she would really like to get her to her bed quickly before she got sore arms, "Okay then…"

The brunette left the room, but her mind was still racing back to the knight image she had seen before and the unexpected look she saw on the commander's face before she noticed the brunette in the room.

' _Prairie looked so terrified… What was that thing anyway…?'_


	11. Past Connections

"Again, Dad?" Estelle asked with an unimpressed look on her face, "Can I just go on patrol in the city or something? I heard another attack there last night-"

"Stop," Vent's voice was stern as he stood in front of his children in the training room, "You got hurt when you got into a fight with that guy from yesterday. Your mom isn't going to be happy if I put you in danger again."

The female brunette let out a sigh, "You get hurt all the time, Dad. You always told me that getting hurt is cool because it shows how much you've been fighting for good."

"I didn't-" Vent was in denial, though it was hard to come up with an argument when he recalled doing so. He let out a defeated sigh as he put a hand over his face, "You've been hanging out with Ashe too much that you're getting more and more like her in terms of arguments… Just train here and be good kids, okay? I'm going to see Fleuve today."

"Whatever!" "Yes, Daddy!"

Estelle watched as her father stepped out of the training room while Oriel had already busied himself with swinging practice using a wooden sword. The oldest of the siblings was holding the blue Biometal in her hand as she turned to the targets used for shooting practice. She had her Biometals, but she wasn't allowed in the fields to battle. So what was the point of her being given the Biometal anyway? Was it just given to her because she had been nagging for it so much in the past but not because she was capable?

She let out a sigh as she turned to look at her younger brother practicing. She brought up the Biometal in her hand and looked at it in sadness. She recalled Fleuve's mumbling she heard when she passed by the lab years ago. She had a chance to transform, but Oriel couldn't at all. They shared the same blood, but they had different fates. It wasn't fair at all.

A sudden jolt of pain was felt in her heart as the image of the tragedy from years ago replayed in her head as she watched Oriel swinging his wooden sword. Her shoulders tensed and her grip on the Biometal tightened as the image of the pink-clad former commander was replaced by the image of her brother. She wouldn't stand still if her brother got hurt, especially when she had the ability to be able to fight. Yet, she wasn't allowed to do any actual fighting to hone her skills.

She had to better to be able to protect Oriel. To protect everyone she couldn't before. Oriel couldn't fight, so it was up to her and Storm to go to the battlefield. Storm had his experience, so it was her turn to get some experience herself. But… she wanted her brother to see his sister in the process of developing into a true fighter.

"Hey Oriel," the younger brunette stopped his training for a moment as he looked at his sister, "How about we take a walk in the city… well, I guess more like a patrol? Storm should be too busy training or doing some other fighting stuff and I need a partner for the patrol."

"What about Dad?" he had lowered the wooden sword down as he looked at her worriedly, "He looked mad when you went to the city without asking him the last time."

"Hey, heroes don't need permission," Estelle reassured him with a smile, "They only need power and courage to fight. I already have both!"

He was still looking at her in doubt, "Okay… but you're not going to blame me when we get caught, right?"

"Nope!" she replied confidently, "And we're not going to get caught if we're really careful!"

* * *

The door leading into Fleuve's lab slid open as Vent entered, seeing an unexpected guest in the room.

"Thetis! How have you-"

"Can you tell me anything, Fleuve?" the reploid wasn't paying attention to Vent as he was focused on the older scientist, "I can't ask my wife about her when she's still out there, somewhere…"

The scientist stood in silence for a moment, looking at Thetis as he was thinking of whether or not he should answer the question. He turned back to his computer, typing a few things on the keyboard before a humanoid-like image appeared on the screen along with some data and chart beside it, "It seems like Rose didn't tell you about Iris as well…" he looked up at the screen himself with his back turned to the younger men, "From the information I got from Rose, it seems like Iris is actually one of the new model reploids whose production had been stopped many years ago."

Vent and Thetis had shocked expressions on their faces.

"B-But how?! My wife told me that she and Iris were both humanoids!"

"She  _told_  you, but she  _could_  be lying," the scientist had faced them once more, "I have no intention of making you suspicious of your own family, but the red triangle hidden by her hair is solid proof of this fact. The internal organs she has are all man-made, but they all look and act the same way as the ones humanoids have in them. It's very easy to deceive people into believing her to be humanoid, but the secret will be exposed when she matures because they can't bear any children in any way."

"Hang on a sec, Fleuve," Fleuve directed his attention to the stern tone coming from Vent, "I thought Master Mikhail of Sage Trinity had stopped the production a few months after the announcement made by Master Albert. So why is there another one around?"

"She's Iris, not just another one!" much to the brunette's surprise, Thetis had lashed out at him, "I… I know she's different, but she's just a little girl! She's my daughter! She doesn't know anything about all this!"

Vent let out a defeated sigh, "S-Sorry, I didn't mean to say it wrongly, but… after more than ten years of halting the production, don't you think it's strange that we can find another new model reploid? I mean, I remember Master Mikhail giving us live feed about the destruction of the factories."

There was a bit of a pause from Thetis as he tried calming himself down before talking, "I think… I've heard someone saying that a few reploids for that model went missing around 9 years ago…"

"That's…" realization hit the brunette as his eyes grew wide, "That's around the time Grey went missing! But… I don't think…"

"He isn't the one to do it, I trust him…" Thetis spoke up, though there was still a hint of doubt in his voice, "But before we get to that point, you haven't answered my first question, Fleuve. About Iris' compatibility with Model L like me, now that I can tell that we're not related at all."

"Master Albert was the one who made the entire concept of the new model," Fleuve started, "If you remember what happened all those years ago, I think you'll understand what I mean when I said that. For the reason on why he made it to be very human-like, I'm afraid I don't have the answer to that."

"To have the Mega Men fight each other…" Vent recalled the events when he and Aile first met Grey and Ashe, "I guess he was also trying to build a strong Mega Men who would obey his every command, in case his plans to become Mega Man King failed…"

After a few moments of silence, Thetis let out a desperate sigh, "I don't like this… I feel like there's an enemy involved in everything up to this point, but we don't know who did it and for what purpose…"

"I think… Grey might know something about this…" Vent pointed out, "I feel like if we can find him, we can find out what's going on in the world," he turned his attention to the door, "The problem is…"

Fleuve nodded in agreement, "Yes, I'm quite aware of that," he turned back to the monitor behind him, "I'm not sure if the Commander is going to be happy about this, but I may have a method to try and track him down from the communication signals."

"Please, Fleuve. I'll take responsibility if Aile finds out about this."

* * *

The brunette siblings had just walked for a few minutes, but Estelle had already sighed over a dozen times out of boredom. She was expecting something interesting to happen while she was on patrol, but the peaceful city was running the way it was supposed to be without any noticeable issues. She had to put aside the heroic actions for the day as there wasn't anyone to be fought or anyone needed saving.

Estelle let out yet another sigh as she dragged her feet, "Ugh… patrols are boring…"

"It's peaceful again today, I guess we should go back soon before-"

"Nah, I'm not going back to the base either," Estelle had a bored look on her face, "I'm getting sick of seeing the same stuff over and over again…"

"Then I'll go-"

"No, you're staying with me," the older brunette had grabbed Oriel's arm as he tried walking the other way, preventing his escape, "You're going to stick around with… huh?" as she was going to scold Oriel for trying to run away, her eyes fell on three cloaked people by the river under the bridge they were on, "I spot suspicious people!"

"Estelle, don't get us into trouble!" Oriel was trying to break free from his sister's grip, "Those people are scary!"

She let out an annoyed sigh, "You won't be a hero if you keep on being a coward like this," she pulled him her way with ease as she led them to the stairs at the end of the bridge, "Come on, let's go!"

* * *

"Is it not there?" the shortest of the three cloaked people asked the biggest one digging things in the river.

"I can't detect a signals resembling him, My Lord," the big figure stood up before getting up from the river, "Shall we search in another area?"

"Yes. I believe  _it_  should be somewhere in the city's rivers."

"Hold it!"

The three people turned to the source of the feminine voice, looking at Estelle as she put a hand in front of them to motion them to stop.

"What do you want?" the human-sized person asked coldly, "There aren't any restrictions for trying to dig in the river."

"Yes, but your cloaks are making you very suspicious people," Estelle pointed at their cloaks, "I'm on patrol today and I demand you take off your cloaks right now!"

There was a long pause as the three looked at her, not moving at all or having any noticeable response. Oriel had come out from Estelle's back, noticing the deathly silence between them, "E-Estelle, I think we should leave this to the adults…"

"Let's move to the next location," the shortest one spoke up before the three of them began moving again, walking past Estelle as she kept her position.

"H-Hey!" she realized the ignorance coming from them, prompting her to grab the regular-sized one's cloak as he was the last one to walk past her, "I said remove your cloaks so I can identify-"

Estelle let out a gasp as she saw the glowing red eyes hidden under the cloak, "Let go, human," the brunette didn't respond as cold sweat began to make her hands wet. Seeing that Estelle wasn't responding to the warning, he grabbed her wrist and yanked the hand away from his cloak, almost throwing her to the river.

"Estelle!" Oriel ran over to his sister in worry, "Are you okay?"

Her eyes grew wide as she stared at the cloaked people going up the bridge, "W-What was that…? That cold sensation…"

" _Do you seek for power?"_

"Huh?" Estelle turned to Oriel, who was looking at her in worry, "Did you say something?"

"Yeah, I was just asking if you were okay-"

"No, did you mention something about seeking power… stuff?"

Oriel paused as he stared at her, "You didn't hit your head, right?"

Estelle let out a sigh as she shifted her position to try getting back to her feet, until something bright had caught her eyes. She quickly ran over to the object, ignoring the mud sticking to hers and Oriel's clothes. She picked it up and rubbed the mud and moss covering it, revealing itself to be a brown rock with three blue crystals on it.

"What… what is this ugly rock-"

" _You hated the killer of your friend. Let me help you get your revenge. I shall lend you my power!"_

"Ah!" Estelle let out a shriek as she threw the strange rock away, "I-It spoke!"

"But it's just a rock!" Oriel protested as he tried pulling her sister up again, "Come on, we have to go back and clean ourselves before Dad finds out!"

Estelle let out a slow nod as she took Oriel's offer to help her back to her feet. Her eyes remained fixed on the rock even after her brother had unknowingly left for the stairs without her. She approached the rock once more, picking it up only to stare at it once more.

There was no response this time.

"As ugly as you might look like, I think I'll take you back for something useful…"


	12. On the Move

The brunette siblings had made it back to the transerver room in the Guardian Base, creating a pool of mud as they arrived. Their little treasure hunt in the river had caused mud to be stuck on their clothes, which made hiding their mess a lot harder than they originally thought. They would have to be quick about cleaning themselves up and then retrace their trail to clean the muddy mess they would be creating in the hallways.

"Well," Estelle let out a sigh as she and Oriel stepped out of the transerver room, " _she_  is definitely not going to be happy about this…"

" _He_  is not happy about that too, you know," the siblings let out a shocked gasp as they turned to the source of the voice, finding their father with a glare in his eyes, "The mess you two made here tells me enough that you're skipping training."

"But…" she tried making up an excuse, though the glare was still directed at them and particularly at her, "Sorry, Dad…"

"Vent," the man turned in response to the shoulder tap he had as his blue-haired comrade had walked up to him, "Let's hurry and head for the city. We have to be quick before someone out there gets hurt. Storm and my daughter won't be able to hold them off for long."

Vent gave him a nod, "Got it. You go ahead, Thetis. I'll catch up with you later when I'm done talking with the kids," Thetis responded with a nod as he went ahead into the transerver room. Vent turned back to the siblings with a sigh, "Please, Estelle, listen to me for once and leave Oriel out of your troubles! I can't contact Ashe to babysit you two all the time and I can't watch over you when I'm being sent to the fields over and over again!"

Estelle and Oriel went silent as Vent let out another irritated sigh as he tried calming himself down. He took another look, which was more like a worried look rather than a stern one before he went into the transerver room without another word.

Estelle hung her head from the scolding, looking at the traces of mud being transferred from her body and clothes to the floor. In her silence, Oriel had grabbed her hand as he looked up at her sadly, feeling the same guilt as her sister for disobeying. She turned to the direction of the control room, which had become her most hated room, thinking that while she might not be able to get some answers she wanted, it was worth a shot to try rather than doing nothing.

This would most likely be her last time to disobey her parents, but it would be for a cause good enough that she would be forgiven. Except, her brother would have to be out of it for his own safety.

"Oriel," she spoke up softly as she looked at her brother with a serious look, "I have to go back out there again, but I don't want you to come because it's too dangerous," she gave him a smile as she crouched down to his eye level, "Now go clean yourself up and stay in the base, okay?"

Oriel looked at his sister for a moment before giving her a slow nod, "Okay… be careful out there, okay? You have to come back home along with Daddy!"

"I will," she stood up once more, putting a hand on his head as she smiled at him, "I promise."

* * *

Estelle, with the leftover mud on her clothes partially dry, stepped into the lively control room. The operators were all busy communicating with the members on the field, with the commander herself not noticing the young brunette's arrival in the room. There was a bit of movement on the commander's chair as Estelle approached her, though Aile didn't turn around to see her.

"Commander," Estelle called out to her with a stern tone, "Can you tell me what happened in the city?"

There were beeping sounds coming from the other side of the chair before a reply came, "Another maverick attack is happening in the city. It happened shortly after you and Oriel left the city."

Estelle closed her eyes as she let her shoulders drop, "So you knew all along."

"I'm tracking every member's transport records from and to this base after your escape a while ago," Aile responded without looking back, "Go back to your room and don't get involved in the affairs of the adults…  _please…_ "

The whisper at the end had caused Estelle to let out a surprised gasp before she lowered her head for a moment. Her thoughts were insistent on the hatred she had for the commander in front of her, though her heart had heard a different tone at the end. Rather than the usual cold tone to keep her away from the fields, it was the motherly tone she hadn't heard in years.

The young brunette clenched her fists before she ran out of the control room with a barely-audible whisper, "Sorry, Mom…"

Aile heard the door sliding open and close even as her eyes were still directed at the holographic screen in front of her. Her hands had curled into fists as well before she took a deep breath to calm herself down as she couldn't have another emotional breakdown. Her focus would be the Mega Men present on the field to fight off the mavericks to ensure their safety and the safety of the city residents as well.

The blinking red dots on the screen had made her tense as the numbers had quickly covered almost the entire screen compared to the very few blinking blue dots. Shifting her attention for a moment, she glanced at the monitor on her desk instead with a single word shown over a series of lines. The word  _password_.

She had to enter a password, which meant that the data she wanted to access wasn't for just anyone to see. The problem would be figuring out the correct password, as using the previous user's name as the password wasn't safe. She couldn't think of anything else to be used as the password, especially not when her focus was divided between finding the right password and tracking the number of attacking mavericks. And those numbers were nothing to laugh at.

Her hand reached the metal objects in her pocket, which had made the pocket as their home for the past eight years. The images of the battlefield had filled her mind as her hands trembled at the sight of people dying, but it wasn't the time for her to be afraid. She had failed the last time she had fought and she wouldn't make the same mistake. Her friends and family needed her, but not as Commander Aile. They needed her as Aile, a friend and comrade-in-arms.

* * *

Storm was in his Model H form as he released another tornado to blow away some of the flying mechaniloids, combined with Iris' Model L's powers to create icicles in the vortex. Even as they had taken out many of them, the other mechaniloids had snuck up on them to attack from behind. Both of them were too tired to react quickly, being thrown back without having the chance to react at all.

Iris' transformation had faded, leaving her in her vulnerable reploid form for the flying Galleons to aim at her. Storm had stood in front of her to block the attack with his Model F's buster guns, though with his tired state, he wasn't hoping much on protecting. Both of them braced themselves for the incoming shots, though the sound of shooting didn't come from the Galleons.

Pieces of the destroyed Galleons hit the ground in front of them with loud clanging sounds as Storm and Iris turned to the side to see the brunette already in her blue Model X form. Her buster was charging up for more, shooting down the mechaniloids around them with hardly any effort. Once the coast around them was clear, she lowered her buster arm and panted in exhaustion.

"Sorry… it took so long…" she let out a tired smile between her panting before slowly bringing herself back up, "I'm… still not used to using this much strength… in a short time…"

"Huh," Storm scoffed, "You still need more physical training for battles lasting this long…" the green-haired teen suddenly looked up, sensing a newcomer to the battlefield coming, "Stay sharp, Estelle! I sense something powerful coming this way!"

"Yes, Captain!" Estelle gave him a playful salute, which prompted him to sigh for her playful attitude in the situation. Iris had come out from behind Storm, which Estelle noticed as the girl wasn't familiar to her, "Hey, who's that hiding behind you?"

Storm took a glance at Iris as she came out of her hiding place behind him, "Iris. She can transform to help us too, but she can only do it in a much shorter time than we all do."

"Not the best place for a meeting, but nice to meet you!" Estelle gave her a hand wave, which the girl responded with a doubtful one, before a big figure landed in the middle of them, "Hey, watch where you… Wait, it's you again! That Craft guy!"

The figure had released his big cannon from his back as he looked at Estelle, "I see that you're a Mega Man too now," he had aimed his cannon at her with a smirk on his face, "Well, no matter. You will die along with everyone else!"

Estelle had frozen in place, which had forced Storm to switch over to his Model H form to quickly dash towards her and pushed her out of the way to safety. Before they could react, Craft had swung his cannon around him to knock the three young Mega Men out of the way. Just before they could land, the big reploid had thrown a few bombs at them which exploded once they made contact with the Mega Men.

The three of them were thrown farther away and apart from the explosion. The dust caused by the explosion had decreased their area of vision, though it hadn't bothered the big reploid at all as he navigated through it without problem and headed towards where Storm and Iris were. Storm's transformation had cancelled itself from both damage and limit, putting him in a defenseless position.

Estelle's transformation was almost fading as well from the damage taken. She felt pain all over her body from the hard-hitting attacks she had taken as she looked over to where her two comrades were. The dust had started clearing up that she could see better, though what she had seen wasn't the sight she had wanted to look.

Iris was unconscious with her head under Craft's foot as the big reploid had grabbed Storm by his throat. The teen was struggling to break free from the reploid's strong grip on him, though his efforts were for naught as his whole body was brought down to the ground. Iris' head was slowly being buried under the reploid's weight as he slammed Storm over and over to the ground as the teen's face was covered in his blood and dust.

Estelle looked in horror from all the bloodshed she had to see as her hands shook violently in response. The more-experienced Storm had already been beaten down like he was no trouble at all and the new friend she had just met was suffering being stepped on. She had to do something to help them, but the shots coming from her shaking buster arm wasn't making a dent or scratch on the reploid's armor.

She needed more power to save her friends, but the power was something that she didn't have.

" _I shall lend you the power you need."_

Estelle froze in her place as the familiar voice echoed in her head, "W-What…?"

" _You need my power to destroy him. I can give you that much power to take care of him."_

She shook her head, "No, I… I don't have to destroy him… I only want power to save them… to save my friends… just… a bit more power…!"

There was a static sound in her mind as her consciousness slowly faded. Her mind went blank, only leaving the sight of the brown rock she had found earlier in her head. The crystals on the rock glowed brightly, covering the sight in her mind with bright blue light before the same voice from before spoke up,  _"Biomatch found. Biolink Established! M. E. G. A. System Online!"_

"AAAHHH!" Estelle yelled out in pain as a beam of energy had formed around her, surprising Craft as he stopped and released the unconscious Storm from his hands.

"I-Impossible! That power…!"

The energy beam shot out to the sky, gaining the attention of the other fighters on the field.

Vent, Thetis, and Aeolus had gathered in a circle in the middle of a mechaniloid army as they looked up at the energy beam. Ashe and Siarnaq, who had just arrived at the city to help as well, stopped in their tracks as they saw the beam of light shooting at the sky. Aile had arrived as well, still in humanoid form, coming from a different side of the city when she noticed the beam of light.

The commander's eyes grew wide as she recognized the energy reading, "No… that can't be…!"


	13. New Powers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before I begin this new chapter, let me thank you all for all the kudos! Zero comments so far, but with that many kudos I guess you guys are enjoying this story so far...?

The feeling was different for her then. Power was pouring into her body when she first transformed as Mega Man Model X, though the strain for using it longer than she should was making her too tired to move. She could transform as Model X's Biomatch, though only for a limited time as her ability to transform came from her parents. There was no information about her not being able to transform using another Biometal, assuming if what she had found back then was one.

As unbelievable level of strength poured into her body, she could feel dark emotions she couldn't get when transforming with Model X. The strong feelings of hate were starting to overwhelm her, grasping to her heart like they were trying to tear her apart from the inside. She was facing the cost of the powerful transformation and was losing, but if she had lost there, she knew that she couldn't win against the powerful enemy outside.

A black helmet had formed around the brunette's head, with golden long hair flowing out of the back of the helmet. Black and red armor had overwritten Model X's blue one, replacing the buster arm with a purple saber firmly held in her hand. The blue crystal glowed as circuits started forming in it, before the young brunette looked at the surprised big reploid in front of her with her glowing red eyes.

"Guh!" the reploid suddenly clutched his head in pain as he tried to keep looking at Estelle as she slowly swung her saber around, "W-What… is this sensation…? Are these… memories…?" the reploid watched as Estelle had slowly made her way towards him with the purple saber at her side, "The name… Zero… no, those eyes… you're not him…!"

Estelle swung her saber at him, though the reploid had blocked it with his cannon. Even with the saber blocked from slicing his body in ease, the force Estelle had put into the swing was strong enough to have him down to one knee. With enough force he put into his own cannon, the reploid managed to knock her to the side with his big weapon to get some time for him to attack.

The emotionless stare coming from Estelle had made the reploid flinch, sensing the cold sensation of the stare. The sudden movement coming from the brunette had the reploid react with his homing missiles, having the fired projectiles hit her head-on as she charged at him. The collision caused more smoke to cover the area, which reduced the other two fighters' vision of the battlefield.

"W-What's going on…?" Storm wondered as he nervously held onto the fainted Iris, "What did Estelle do just now…?"

The clanging sounds of metal were heard from the smoke before it cleared out, showing the exhausted reploid along with Estelle as she stood in front of him as if nothing happened to her. The reploid quickly pulled out his sawtooth bayonet knife from his cannon and ran towards her, though the attack had only met Estelle's saber as she parried it before countering him with a three-hit combo slash.

The reploid was knocked back from the attack, though the newly-created distance between allowed him to aim for a beam cannon. The attack had hit her, though she wasn't showing any signs of pain on her face as she landed safely in front of him to counter once more with a burning uppercut. The reploid threw a few grenades at her, with one of them hitting the saber that it exploded.

The explosion had thrown Storm and Iris farther from the scene along with Estelle, though the brunette quickly rolled in the air while swinging her saber. As she rolled in the air, her saber released icicles around her and hit both the ground and the reploid himself, freezing anything they hit. She landed on the ground, pulling out her buster alongside her saber as she released two shots from her buster before sending a shockwave from her saber at the end.

The reploid knocked away the weak charged shots before using his cannon to block the shockwave, though Estelle had disappeared from in front of him when he removed the cannon from his line of sight. A sharp pain in his neck was felt the moment there was an extra weight at the back of his neck before he was sent flying to the other side of the field.

Estelle had delivered a powerful jumping kick on his neck as she landed in her kicking position. Before the reploid could recover from the previous attack, the reploid was hit by energy-filled rocks as Estelle had slammed the ground in front of her. The attack had pinned him back down due to the fatigue and damage, though the helplessness he had on his face, Estelle had brought her own fist back to the ground and caused pillars of energy to shoot out from the ground and the sky.

The attacks hit him hard, leaving him motionlessly at the ground as Estelle approached him just to plant her feet on the big reploid's chest. The reploid looked at her in pain as she put her saber under his throat, ready to slice his body in half easily. The reploid let out a pained sigh as he closed his eyes, "Go on… destroy me… I have no regrets…"

Estelle raised her saber, ready to give the reploid his dying wish, though the pain in her head had stopped her.

' _This is not what I want!'_  the brunette's true consciousness resurfaced as she felt the intentions her body had as she towered over the helpless reploid, "Stop…!"

The brunette had dropped her saber to harmlessly to the side as she fell to her knees, clutching her head as the voice from before echoed in her head,  _"Don't you want to finish him off after what he had done to your friends? This is your chance and I shall lend you the strength to do so!"_

"You… you're wrong…" the brunette's eyes had returned to her usual green color as she weakly looked at the two fighters sitting up on the other side of the field, "I… I only want… to protect…"

The transformation on Estelle had undone itself as the brunette lied down next to the damaged reploid, passed out from overexerting her strength from the battle. Storm and Iris had recovered slightly from the damage they had received, but couldn't get to her side quick enough before a cloaked figure had appeared in front of Estelle and the reploid.

"I see… this copy of Craft is imperfect as well," it was a male voice, void of any emotion before he pointed a buster gun at the reploid.

"Forgive… me… My Lord…" the reploid spoke up weakly, "Those memories… memories belonging… to Craft…"

"Memories… such useless component for a combat reploid such as you," there was a sound of clicking coming from the gun, "Die."

A shot from the gun had made it through the reploid's head before red liquid started pouring out from the wound. The reploid lied motionless before the cloaked man easily kicked his limp body out of the way as he walked towards the unconscious Estelle.

"A fine job for the new model to house a fine combatant's data, but not as fine as the Chosen One for Model O," the man nudged Estelle's unconscious body with his foot, though he didn't get a response, "You're not dead already, are you?"

"Hands off my daughter!"

The cloaked man casually side-stepped the incoming vertical shockwave before Vent arrived along with Thetis and Aeolus, all still transformed. The adults had gone over to their children's sides with Vent holding Estelle protectively and looked up at the man. His eyes grew wide as he recognized the familiar face under the cloak, looking at him in disbelief.

"N-No way…!"

"Vent, look behind you!" Aeolus had warned as he saw another cloaked man behind the vice commander, but the brunette was too shocked to react.

Before the cloaked man's purple saber made contact with him, a charged buster shot had landed on the saber to cancel the attack. The man jumped back to face his attacker, looking at the incoming brunette with her buster pointed at him, "It's you!"

Vent turned around to see the newcomer, which was the sight he hadn't seen in years, "Aile!"

"This is a disadvantageous position!" the cloaked man with the buster had backed away, though only to meet a sharp metal on his back, "What?!"

"This is as far as you go," the man with purple armor told him as he raised his kunai blade up to the throat, "Surrender."

"Don't go anywhere else, both of you," Ashe had walked out from behind the purple-armored man, "Not after Siarnaq and I tried finding you for years," she pointed both of her busters at each of the cloaked man, "I don't want to do this, so please…"

The cloaked man with the gun let out a laugh, much to the Chosen Ones' confusion, "We only have one out of two options to ask, and we'll be waiting for your answer at a later time."

"What do you want from us?" Aile sternly asked as she kept her eyes on both of the cloaked men.

The cloaked man pointed his gun at Estelle, prompting Vent to protect her with his body, "This girl, is option one," the man removed his gun from her before aiming it up at the sky, "Second option, the Ciel System."

"What if we refuse to both?"

The cloaked man laughed once more after hearing the commander's response, "If you've been a good commander all along, you're wise enough to choose one from those two options. I still have a big army to send to you and I will always create new ones, more than you all can destroy!"

"Not if we defeat you two first!" Ashe had fired her laser shots at them, though the shots had harmlessly made contact with the purple saber.

The cloaked man with the gun turned to his companion, "We're leaving."

The other man responded with a silent nod before grabbing his companion, jumping over the Chosen Ones blocking their way before they made quick jumps to the higher buildings before the Chosen Ones could respond, "Wait!"

"This isn't the time for them!" before Vent could chase after them, Aile had grabbed his arm to stop him, much to his surprise, "If he has an army of mechaniloids that he can recreate at will, then we need a plan to get through to him."

"Aile," the commander shifted her focus on her Hunter friend as she looked at her with a serious look, "I guess you've figured everything out yourself, huh?"

Aile responded with a nod before she looked up at the direction where the two had gone to, "From those recordings some of the old data from Prairie's archive I've managed to decipher, I have a picture of the situation. And of course… the identity of that person."

"Yeah," Vent let out a sad nod as he knelt down beside Estelle once more, "I still can't believe it… and he tried to kill Estelle too…"

"He won't," the commander's answer was short, prompting Vent to look up at her, "He wants her alive, or we give him the Ciel System. We can't give any of them to him."

"Can we save this dumb talk for later?" Aeolus had bluntly asked as he helped Storm back to his feet, "None of us are in any condition to fight after that raid. Should we have the kids taken care of first before talking in proper places like the control room for example?"

"Well," Ashe casually shrugged, "As blunt as he put it, Aeolus' right though. I don't know what happened, but I do believe that Estelle needs a lot of attention after all that excitement."

Thetis nodded in agreement, "I second that, though there's something that's bothering me about that person…" he looked up at the buildings, "That person… is him, right?"

The cheerfulness on Ashe's face had faded, replaced by a sad frown, "Yeah, sadly my bet is right on this. He is our Grey…"


	14. Old Data

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time for some more disclosure!

Estelle had found herself in an empty white room, hearing nothing but the echoes of her footsteps. She felt like she had been there before, only that her previous visit in that place involved her seeing the city in her mind. The images from before were seen through someone's eyes, though she couldn't really tell whose eyes those were.

They could be hers, or they could be the eyes of another presence within her. All she knew was that she felt like she wasn't alone in her mind. Someone would always be whispering to her to destroy and give into the darkness in her heart, using their power to crush the obstacles around her. It had never happened to her before, and especially not before she picked up the strange rock from the river in the city.

The vision of the city and the big reploid being attacked came up all of a sudden. Someone had shown her the images for some reason, but it was through those images that her white surrounding disappeared. It was at that time that her consciousness slowly returned to her even if it was just for a few moments. The last thing she could remember before passing out from exhaustion was a glimpse of blonde hair in her mind.

She couldn't remember how long she had been out cold, but she found herself in the white room once more. Rather the atmosphere of hatred from before, all she could feel in the room were guilt and regret. Those were the feelings of a different presence, compared to when she felt hatred. It was the same feeling when the images of the city popped up in her mind before.

" _I'm sorry, Estelle… You've been through a lot of rough times because of me…"_

Estelle looked around nervously for the source of a little girl's voice, "W-Who are you?!"

" _Please, don't be afraid,"_  the voice of the girl came from a floating ball of light as it came down and stopped in front of the brunette,  _"I mean you no harm… never again…"_

"A Cyber-elf…?" Estelle recognized the shape, but the little girl materializing in front of her was foreign to her, "But… who are you? How do you know my name?"

" _In this form… I am Alouette,"_  the girl closed her eyes as her body glowed, growing in size before she changed her appearance to the one familiar to the brunette,  _"Estelle, do you remember me?"_

"P-Prairie!" Estelle exclaimed with a sad smile on her face, "I… of course…" tears started rolling on her cheek as she felt a mix of joy and sadness, "I… I miss you so much…"

" _I know…"_  the former commander replied with a pained voice as her holographic image tried giving the crying brunette a hug,  _"I'm sorry, Estelle… It was my fault that you and your mother had to witness everything you shouldn't…"_

"No, that was my fault!" the brunette had broken down as she covered her face, "I… I shouldn't be wandering out there… If I didn't, then you wouldn't be…"

Prairie put her hands on Estelle's shoulders as the brunette lowered her head,  _"Estelle, I've always been with you. I've always been with the Guardians, watching over all of you moving forward to live up the Guardians' principles. I've never been far from any of you…"_

"T-Then… that time too…?" the brunette looked up with her teary eyes, getting a nod and a warm smile from the former commander, "You're a Cyber-elf… but at that time… why could I feel your warm heart…? I could feel your guilt… your regret…"

" _That's because… I don't want you to get hurt… I don't want another victim to that Biometal… to Biometal Model O…"_

"Model… O…?" Estelle had stopped crying as she wiped her tears away, "Is that the strange rock I found in the river…?"

The look on Prairie's face turned serious as she gave her a nod,  _"Yes. I can't tell you everything here, but I know you'll eventually find out the truth."_

"But why not, Prairie?" Estelle asked her with a pleading look, "I… I'm not strong enough with Model X… I might need Model O-"

" _Absolutely not!"_  Prairie's stern voice had startled Estelle as she slightly jumped in surprise,  _"You must not depend on Model O too much… no, not even Model X… I don't want you to get hurt in any way, just like how your mother desires to protect you and Oriel."_

"Then tell me why I can't!" the brunette raised her voice, "I'm a Mega Man! A Chosen One! I want to protect my friends… my family… How am I supposed to protect them if I don't have the Biometals' power?!"

Prairie looked at Estelle silently as the brunette panted from her venting her anger. The former commander's expression hadn't changed, even as she faced Estelle's anger.

" _True power… doesn't come from the Biometals,"_  Prairie spoke up calmly,  _"They have become soulless metal storing the legendary heroes' power. But they only had their power, not their spirit, and not their will to fight. If you can't find your true strength, you won't be any different from the enemy mavericks."_

"I… I don't understand…"

" _You don't have to understand everything now,"_  the former commander's stern voice echoed in the empty room as her materialized figure started fading,  _"This era of Mega Men is about to change. One key leading to the truth behind that change is my first name, Alouette. Don't forget that, Estelle…"_

"W-Wait! Prairie!" Estelle tried reaching out for the former commander, but she could only grasp empty air as Prairie turned back into her Cyber-elf form, floating away from her as the white room around her slowly faded.

* * *

"Commander, please explain yourself!" Aeolus' voice echoed in the control room, "What do you mean by 'looking at the late commander's data'?!"

"It is as I said," Aile replied calmly, despite the shock on the other Mega Men's face in the room, "For reasons we don't know, Prairie had hidden some data that's most likely related to Grey's disappearance years ago. I've seen a glimpse of her browsing through those data in the past, but she refused to tell me anything about it."

"I knew it…" Ashe let out a whisper, "Those recordings made by Grey were actually meant for Prairie after all…"

"No doubt about it," Thetis nodded in agreement, "But why didn't any of them tell us? Was Grey's past really bad that they decided it was best not to tell us anything?"

"I… I can't say for sure…" the commander looked at him with a disappointed look, "I've managed to decrypt most of the data hidden by Prairie, but I can't find a direct connection to him. There are only mentions of the enemies we fought, like Weil, Master Albert, and even Master Thomas and incomplete parts of their research data. The only mention closely related to Grey would be the new model reploids made by Master Albert, which Grey himself had stolen."

"Aile, is there anything else other than those things?" Vent asked responded by Aile shaking her head.

"From what I've decrypted, no," the commander turned back to her computer as she tapped a few things on her keyboard before a holographic window popped up, "If you mean in general, this is the only thing I can't break."

"A password is required," Siarnaq commented in a monotone voice.

"If it's Prairie… then how about the names of the Guardian members or maybe Ciel?" Ashe suggested, also getting another 'no' from Aile, "The name of her dolls?"

"No, I've tried with any names I can remember," Aile turned back to the holographic window, "We only have one more password to try on it. It looks like Prairie wants to keep this data away from us that she had to use this kind of password protection. If we can't get this last one right, the data will be wiped away from the database."

"If that's the case, I can't risk trying to hack into the database," Aeolus commented with a desperate look on his face, "Not knowing anything about Grey and his intentions like this is bothering me…"

"The password is Alouette."

The group of adults were surprised by the voice coming from the control room's entrance. Estelle stood there as the door closed behind her, looking at the adults with bandages visible around her head and arms, "Estelle! What are you doing out of the medic wing?!"

"I'm… fine, Dad…" the young brunette had avoided her father's gaze as he gently put his hands on her shoulders while looking at her worriedly, "I… I just need a bit of extra sleep after this…"

There was sadness in her voice, which Vent was worried about, as she turned around to head out for the door, only to be stopped by the commandant herself.

"Wait, Estelle," Aile's voice was stern, but unlike the usual, it didn't sound as cold and robotic.

Estelle stood still in front of the opened door, but she didn't turn around to face her mother, "What?"

"Please tell me where you got that name."

Estelle didn't want to tell her the truth, when she was still unsure about her own emotions after her unusual reunion with the former commander. Until she could accept whatever truth she had to find out, she had to tell a lie again at her mother.

"I… I feel like I've heard that name before… from Prairie…" Estelle turned her head to catch a glimpse of the stern expression on her mother, "I don't care if you think it's a lie because you always think that I'm lying all the time."

Estelle stepped out without another word, turning the attention of the others back to Aile as the commander stood still in her place.

"Well…" Thetis started as his voice broke the silence in the room, "I don't really understand what happened between the two of you, but was she really lying just now, or was she actually telling the-"

"We…" Aile had interrupted him, forcing herself to speak, "We don't have any other options. I'll try putting that name as the password."

The commander turned back to the window without another word, with Vent looking at her in worry, "Aile…"

" _Password accepted. Welcome back, Commander Prairie."_

The robotic voice along with a beep came from the window, which had surprised the group, "S-Seriously? How did your daughter managed to find out about that name?! I've never heard Prairie mention anything about Alouette or something!"

The commander didn't respond immediately to the silver-haired Hunter as her eyes were glued to the lines of text being shown to her. Her eyes grew wide as a few familiar images came into view, "W-What is this…?"

"What is it, Aile?" Vent went over to her side as she showed the image of a golden knight-like armor, "Is that… a gigantic armor?"

"This isn't any ordinary armor!" Aile responded as she showed another popup window containing her own notes, "Grey mentioned this in one of the corrupt recordings! But why is it…?"

"A virus transmitter," Aeolus' statement had caught the attention of the group in the control room, "I recalled hearing something like that in Albert's lab before I got my hands on the modified Model H. It won't work without spending a huge amount of power, however."

"So that's why… he wanted the Ciel System for…" Ashe had recalled the painful memories she had with Aile and Prairie back in the past, "And that caused… the tragedy…"

"Wait," Aile had interrupted once more as she continued scrolling on the window, "There are notes here that's most likely written by Prairie…" she went silent for a few moments before she nodded, "Model O's compatibility… and a Biomatch's life connected to it… power of will…? Then he was going to either use the Ciel System or Estelle's life to power the transmitter?!"

Aeolus, who was also looking over the data, gave her a nod, "It looks like it. But what is the virus for anyway?"

Aile shook her head, "I don't know. Master Thomas was most likely interested in this twisted project as well, but it seemed like he needed the data of Model O itself to use it. He couldn't really do anything with just the physical Biometal in his hand…"

"Not just that, actually," Ashe added, "Estelle had somehow found the Biometal to transform in the city and defeat that Craft guy, but we couldn't find it anymore when we got her to the medic wing along with the other two kids."

Vent, who was listening to Ashe's statement, had instinctively reached for his pocket, before he nodded nervously, "Y-Yeah, I was the one to check her pockets but I couldn't find anything other than Model X with her."

"Well," Aeolus turned back to the commander, "what should we do now, Commander?"

"For now, get some rest," the commandant took another quick glance at the windows once more, "I'll try and find out more about Model O and that virus transmitter."

The group had dismissed itself, leaving only Vent and Aile in the control room along with the operators. The commander was aware of her husband's presence in the room, but her attention was still directed at the data in front of her as Vent was being silent.

The vice commander put his hand over the bulging spot in his pocket before he let out a sigh, "Aile?"

"What is it?"

"Can we talk? Just a short one, so it won't bother your work on those data stuff."

His question was met with her silence for a few moments before the commander's chair moved as Aile rose from her seat, "Okay, just for a little while only."


	15. Unsorted Feelings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late update, even if it's just a bit! Now here's the new chapter!

Aile and Vent spent a silent moment at the deck, with Aile leaning against the railing and turning her back against Vent as he stood behind her. Neither of them were said anything yet, letting the evening wind blow their long hair back and forth.

After a long period of silence, Vent was the first one to speak with a warm smile on his face.

"You know that you don't have to put up a tough front anymore. At least, not in front of me."

Aile let out a sigh, "So you knew all along."

"W-Well…" Vent nervously rubbed the back of his head, "Not all the time, but I kinda figure it out that you're starting to return to your old self lately."

"And that's… that's what I'm afraid of…" the commander responded in a whisper, "If I let my emotions in control again, I might-"

"If you don't, you'll be the cold-hearted commander the new Guardian members refer to," the expression on Vent's face turned serious for a moment before it softened, "Even if you're fine with that, have you even considered about how Estelle feels?"

"Estelle…" Aile put a hand over her chest, "She… hates me, right?"

"I'm not her," Vent replied as he joined his wife by the railing, "but I don't think that's the case with her. She's more mature than most adults give her credit for, so she won't just hate someone as close as a family."

"But!" Aile let out a protest, "Estelle is still just a child!"

"She is," Vent nodded, but didn't look at her directly, "but if you watch her grow over these past few years, you can tell that she's a lot more mature than us when we were her age. After all, she had Oriel to take care of when both of us and the rest of the adults are too busy to look after them."

"That doesn't mean she can just charge blindly into the battlefield, you know," her voice was cold as she responded, "The kids should stay out of danger and let the more experienced adults take care of the mavericks for them. That way, they'll be out of harm's way."

"She's not alone, Aile," Vent replied with a stern voice, "Storm is there to help her and he's got military training at an early age, thanks to Atlas. I don't know about Iris, but I'm guessing she can fight well enough from watching Thetis in battle."

"But the mavericks will-"

"They won't!" the vice commander had grabbed Aile's hands in his, much to her surprise, as he looked at her in the eye, "I know that you've never stopped believing her abilities… no, you've never doubted Estelle from the beginning. You're just afraid that… that you'll be blamed because you can't be by her side at all times in battle… that you're afraid of that tragedy…"

Aile had avoided Vent's gaze, but she didn't bother releasing his grip on her hands, "It was my fault that Prairie…"

"Nobody is blaming you for that!" Aile looked up in surprise from both Vent's voice and the strong grip he had on her, "Stop blaming yourself for everything!"

"But it's true!" she had broken free from his grip as she glared at him with her teary eyes, "I had the chance! I had the chance to shoot and save Prairie back then! And I… I didn't take that chance…"

Aile had lowered her head, letting the tears fell on the metal structure of the deck. Vent watched her with a pained look, not knowing what else to say to her when she was being stubborn about blaming herself. The three girls present at that time were all blaming themselves since that day, while he recalled that he deserved to share some of the blame.

He had to look for Estelle, who was wandering around in the chaotic base, because he had to leave her with Aile after he chose his work of patrolling the city over spending time with her. Little did he know that Aile had taken a mission as well, leaving the unusually busy Prairie to look after her. By the time he returned, Aile and Ashe were teaming up to protect the airship from the sudden maverick attack, which in the end led to the tragedy that left a deep scar in their hearts.

"Hey, you should slap and blame me for everything that happened that day," Vent curled his fists as he felt angry with himself back then, "I promised Estelle to hang out in the city with her that day, but I insisted on doing patrols after a mechaniloid went berserk the day before. If I had stayed with her then, she would've been safely playing in Prairie's room and Prairie would be safe…"

The two stayed in silence for a moment before Aile walked over to Vent, burying her face on his chest.

"We're some parents, huh…"

"Sorry…" Vent had wrapped his arms around her as he rested his chin on her head, "I guess… I'm not being a good dad to both Estelle and Oriel in the end… I don't want to end up like my dad, but I ended up doing what he did…"

Aile shook her head, "No, you've raised them fine on your own. If only that I can turn the time back, I want to go back to us being the happy family we're supposed to be. I had never been in most of their lives for many years… chasing after the shadow that's actually my own fears… Just what kind of parent am I to abandon them…?" she looked up sadly at Vent, "My mom would have regretted saving my life back then… She raised and protected me, but I couldn't do the same to my own children…"

"You're wrong about two things, Aile," he let out a sad smile as he brought his hand to wipe her tears away, "I know that you're just trying to protect them, even if Estelle misunderstands you most of the time. And…" Vent let her go from his hug as he held her face in his hands, "While I don't know about your mom, I'm sure that whatever you do, she would never regret saving you. It was thanks to her that I can have you, Estelle, and Oriel in my life. A real family I can call my own."

"Vent…"

The two shared a kiss, which they had both longed for years, even if it only lasted for an instant.

"Now, please don't blame yourself anymore. I just want you to be by my side again, like we promised back then."

Aile gave him a silent nod as her hand slipped away from him, holding on to the railing as she looked at the darkening sky with a sad expression, "I've… always denied the fact that Estelle can do things on her own because I've always viewed her to be a child. I just want her to be safe because I don't want to lose her the way I lost Prairie… yet I must've caused her so much pain and hate that she refused to call me as her mother sincerely…"

"If you need help in talking to her, I'll be with you," Vent gave her a confident smile, which she returned.

"Thanks, Vent."

The blowing breeze was cold enough to make the brunette commander shudder, which prompted Vent to wrap his arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer to him.

"Come on, let's head back inside. Let's give Estelle some time to rest for the night before the two of you spend some time talking."

The two's footsteps were heard on the deck, heading back into the airship, but none of them noticed that they weren't the only ones present on the deck.

A single tear dropped on the bandages wrapped around the young brunette's arms as the wind slightly blew the green cloth in front of her. She sat on the other side of the deck as she hugged her legs together, with a slightly bandaged Storm standing beside her had his loose green coat being blown by the wind. Iris had joined the two as well, clinging to Estelle as the brunette sat in silence through the entire conversation.

"Commander Aile must've been hurting all this time…" Iris commented sadly, "Iris feels sorry for her…"

"Still, to hold in so much pain in her for these long years…" Storm took a glance at the entrance where the two brunettes had just gone to, "She's not a commander for nothing."

"What… what did she mean…?" Estelle still had her head down as she whispered to herself, "She wouldn't… she has never been… but why…?"

Storm took a glance at the brunette before he let out a sigh as he leaned against the wall behind him, "I guess… this is what mothers… parents… do for their kids."

"W-What do you mean…?"

"I didn't really get it then, when my mother had nightmares after the battle back then," the green-haired teen folded his arms with a pained look on his face, "I didn't really understand what parents' love feels like, because of how distant my parents are since then. Now I think I can kind truly relate between my mother's reaction and Commander's reaction just now. Looks like I'm a fool of a son…"

"Iris agrees too!" the brunette had shown her teary eyes at Iris as she looked at the younger girl, "Mama left Iris and Papa because Mama was trying to protect us! Mama was trying to stop the head of the mavericks because Mama loves Papa and Iris!"

"I… guess…" Estelle's response was filled with uncertainty as she rested her chin between her knees, "But… I still refuse to admit it… I still can't…"

"You don't hate her, so that's a plus," she looked up from hearing her friend's response, having a confused look on her face, "If you keep on thinking that you hate her when you actually don't, then you're a fool yourself."

Estelle closed her eyes as a smile formed on her face, "Yeah… I guess you're right…" she rose to her feet along with Iris, standing between her and Storm, before she turned to her green-haired friend with a smirk, "I guess you're taking after your dad with the way you talk just now."

"Huh," Storm let out a smile, "This foolish statement coming from someone who likes to slack off during training reminds me of Mother telling me about Vice Commander's younger days as a top slacker."

"Whatever!" Estelle shrugged cheerfully as her cheerful personality had returned, "So, what now? We've kinda figured out the culprit behind the maverick attacks, so shouldn't we start with our counterattack?"

"But… isn't Grey our parents' friend?" Iris asked, "Why are we fighting between friends?"

"I've heard stories about him from Mother," Storm started as he put a hand around his chin to think, "Despite how she had plenty of…  _humiliating_  losses against him in battle, she never considers him to be a bad person. I'm thinking that he's acting this way because of something else we don't know yet, but I believe Commander Aile can find something within the data by tomorrow."

The cheeriness on Estelle's face slowly faded, "Commander… My  _mom_ , huh…" she noticed the worry on her friends' faces, prompting her to force a smile, "Don't worry about me. It… it hasn't sunk yet that she's trying to protect and care for me in her own way, but I'll be fine."

Storm gave her a nod, "Suit yourself. I'm going back to the land base to report to my mother about this and I'll be back tomorrow morning," he turned to the younger girl beside Estelle, "Iris, are you coming with me? I think your father and someone in purple garb are meeting up with my mother."

Iris gave him an enthusiastic nod before she ran to his side, "Yes! Iris will come!"

"Okay," Estelle raised her hand as she waved at them energetically, "I'll see you tomorrow!"

Iris returned the gesture, while Storm was trying to in an awkward way, given the formal habits he was used to in his daily life.

Estelle's smile faded as the two disappeared into the elevator. Her mind went back to the events at the city that day and her memories of meeting Prairie's cyber-elf form when she passed out. It all started when she picked up the strange rock from the river, which she assumed to be another Biometal from the power it possessed. Prairie had protected her from being completely taken over by the Biometal, but she couldn't rely on the former commander all the time. She had to train to master it so that she would be able to control the power…

If the Biometal was still in her possession.

The brunette panicked as she searched her pockets, which only contained Model X. The strange Biometal was gone, until she recalled her father's unusual gestures in the control room. The bulge in his pocket was unusual, but the other adults were too busy with the data to notice it. She had originally planned for Fleuve to check the strange Biometal for her while keeping it a secret from the others, but it seemed like she wasn't the only one who knew about it.

Her father knew what she had hidden.


	16. A Change of Heart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On time update this time! (well, probably...?) Here comes the adults' change of hearts when it comes to their kids! Also, guess who's going back in action!

It was morning and the control room had already been filled with people. Aeolus and Thetis were the first ones to arrive, followed by Iris, Estelle, Oriel, and Ashe. They were all waiting for their next order from the commander with the old data as the basis.

The door behind them slid open and expecting to see the commander entering, the group turned around to see that it wasn't their commander. Storm faced his father with a defeated look as Aeolus faced the unexpected guest coming in with his son.

"A-Atlas, you fool!" Aeolus scolded his wife as she looked at him in annoyance, "Why are you here when you can't even go out there and fight?!" the man turned to Storm in anger, "Storm, why is your mother here with you?!"

Storm let out an irritated sigh, "I'm sorry, Father. Mother insisted that she's coming with you all and join in the fight. I can't change her mind when she's being this stubborn."

"Storm!"

"That's enough, Pretty Boy!" Atlas stepped closer to Aeolus with a glare directed at him, "I'm not weak and you know that yourself. I've had enough time to think and I'm going to join in this fight no matter what!"

"But!"

"Look," the brunette woman had tapped a finger on the green-haired man's chest, who winced in pain from the strength of her finger, "I don't need you to protect me all the time. But…" she removed her finger from his chest as she turned her face away from him, "Thanks… for your concern…"

"Y-Yes…" Aeolus had instinctively turned his face away as well, "Whatever…"

Ashe cleared her throat to regain the group's attention, "Now that the little family argument is settled, I guess we're missing two more people other than the commander herself, right?" the silver-haired Hunter looked over at Estelle and Oriel, "Don't tell me your dad overslept again…"

Estelle let out a sigh as she shrugged, "Sadly, that might be it. His door was locked when-"

"You know that I won't be oversleeping at times like this."

The door slid open to reveal the man in question, walking into the control room with their commander at his side, "I'm sorry for the wait, everyone."

The group had expected to sense the usual tension in the air as the Aile walked into the control room, but the expression she had on her face told them otherwise. As small as it was, Aile had a smile on her face, which she hadn't been with one for the past few years since the tragedy. Even with Aile back to her old self, they still had to treat her with respect as she was still the commander leading the Guardians.

Vent had joined the group of Mega Men as Aile went over to her commander's seat, typing a few things on her keyboard. A holographic screen with a map on it popped up in front of her as she stopped, but her back was facing the group behind her. A single red dot appeared on the map, slowly blinking, before the brunette commander turned back to the group with a serious look on her face.

"Thanks to Aeolus' and the operators' help yesterday, we've managed to track the location where Grey might be hiding," she moved over to the side to show the map to the others, "The red dot indicates the location where his hideout… or to be exact, where the real Grey's reading was detected before he went missing. Something must've happened to him that he became the different Grey we saw that day."

The silver-haired Hunter curled her hands into fists as she had a pained look on her face, "I knew it… Siarnaq told me the same thing years ago, but I was so insistent that he was only missing and that we had to find him…"

"Ashe…"

"It's okay," Ashe looked at her commander friend with a sad smile, "Moping around all day is so not like me, so I'm hoping that you have something to do about that."

"Yes," Aile gave her a confident smile before she turned to the rest with a serious look, "Everyone, we're going to attack Grey's hideout and uncover the remaining mysteries surrounding his disappearance years ago. And…" she glanced over to the younger Mega Men in the group with a slight worry, "This mission is going to be dangerous, because we're not fully aware of what our opponents can do."

Storm gave her a nod, "I'm ready. I've already been trained for such dangerous missions and tasks."

"Yes!" Iris pumped her fists to the air proudly, "Iris is ready too! Papa and the others are here too, so Iris isn't worried at all!"

Estelle saw that her mother was looking at her, though her eyes showed her worry instead of the usual cold and emotionless eyes she had always seen in her. She looked over to her little brother standing next to her, who had looked up at her and gave her an understanding nod. She returned his nod before she looked back at her mother confidently.

"I'm going too, even if you're going to do whatever it takes to try and stop me," she put her hand on Oriel's shoulder, holding him with a firm grasp, "I want to protect Oriel, and I want to do it using the strength I've been given even before you agree to it… No, I want to protect everyone. I'm a member of the Guardians and it's the job of the Guardians to protect everyone!"

Her fear had struck her once more as Aile saw her daughter, seeing the image of her late mother and Prairie in her. She didn't want to lose another life in the battle and not when she was supposed to be able to fight to prevent it. Yet, she could tell from Estelle's eyes that she was very determined to go and fight in the battlefield. She knew that she could trust her strength and judgment as she had both her and Vent's genes within her, but she couldn't shake off the fear and uneasiness in her heart.

The swirling conflicts within her heart came to a stop when her husband put a hand on her shoulder. He looked at her with a reassuring smile as his firm grasp on her shoulder slowly eased her mind, "You trust her just like you trust everyone from the beginning, right? Or are you hesitating now?"

Aile looked at Vent for a moment before she returned the smile as she held the hand sitting on her shoulder, "No, not when all of you are here," she took Vent's hand off her shoulder as she held it firmly in hers as she turned to the group, lowering her body to a bow, "I have to apologize, everyone, for the unpleasant treatment I've been giving all of you for the past few years. I won't expect you all to forgive me right away, but for these past actions I'm going to resign from my position as the commander of the Guardians once this mission is over."

The control room went silent from Aile's most recent statement. She expected them not to forgive her that she was given the silent treatment and she was ready for them to lash out at her once she stood up once more. Vent's grip on her hand tightened for a moment, though she could feel that it wasn't out of anger or hatred, even if she knew that he had to endure the most for her harsh treatments.

"If you're really sorry about what you did," Aile looked up to the silver-haired Hunter as she had a serious expression, which soon changed into her usual cheery attitude, "you'd consider treating all of us a big feast or something, right?"

"Ashe…?" she looked at her friend in confusion. She didn't understand why Ashe wasn't being angry with her and their constant argument about their clashing decisions.

"You didn't force me or Iris to stay when I wanted to find my wife," Thetis added with a smile on his face, "On top of that, you saved Iris' life when I couldn't do anything to help. She means the world to me and I'm forever indebted to you for saving her, regardless of the condition back then when you took her in."

"The same with me and Atlas, but I don't know about Siarnaq," Aeolus had added in as well, though with his expressionless face, "We've had some rough times in the past, but you didn't force us anything out of us. Even if you did, we would understand that it would only be for the best for many people suffering more than all of us did."

Atlas let out a laugh, "Well said, Pretty Boy!" she playfully smacked Aeolus' shoulder, which ended up being strong enough that the green-haired man held his shoulder in pain, "We don't do any paybacks because there's nothing worth having revenge for. It's not your fault, because it's obviously the fault of whoever it is that's in charge of making Grey into what he is now."

Aile nervously scanned the Chosen Ones in the room, feeling the positive vibe coming from them. She looked over to the younger group of Chosen Ones in front of her, particularly at Estelle as she looked at her mother with a pained look. She closed her eyes, not wanting to see the expression on her daughter's face as she spoke up to her oldest child.

"You don't have to forgive me right away, Estelle. You're right when you think I haven't been a good mother to you… but please, don't be too hard on yourself about what happened years ago…"

The younger brunette stood in silence for a moment before she shook her head, "I… I don't hate you…" she saw her mother opening her eyes and looking back at her in surprise, "It's just… I don't want to be treated like a little kid anymore… I can take care of myself, you know…?"

"Yes…" Aile went over to her daughter's side, giving her a hug she hadn't been giving for years as a single tear slid down from her face, "I know, I'm sorry…"

"M-Mom…" Estelle's voice was muffled by Aile's shirt as she clung to her mother, "I'm sorry…"

The two shared the mother-daughter moment for a bit as they had another important thing to be done. Aile wiped her tears away before she faced the group confidently with her hand still resting on Estelle's shoulder, "Everyone, let's all head for Grey's hideout! The location is detected to be somewhere around area N, so that's the place where we should be heading for!"

Vent nodded in agreement before he turned to his wife with a smile, "Before that, don't you think that you're forgetting something else?"

"Ah, right," she gave him a nod before she dug her hands into her pocket, pulling out the Biometals in her possession, much to the group's surprise, "I'm not sure how much I can help after years of absence from the battlefield, but I'll do what I can to assist in battle."

"Well, that's settled then!" Ashe clapped her hands together in excitement, "Let's get going and storm Grey's hideout already!"

The group dissolved as all but Oriel headed for the transerver room, though as Estelle was heading out as well, Vent had grabbed her, "Hold it right there, young lady. I think you owe me an explanation."

"Urk," the young brunette froze in her place, knowing what her father had meant, "I… I'm innocent!"

Vent let out a sigh before he walked in front of her, shoving the strange rock to her face, much to her surprise, "Where did you find this and why did you use it?"

Estelle backed away as she looked at the rock, "I… I found it in the river in the city, but I never knew that it was a Biometal… Someone in my mind told me that they were going to lend me strength to fight that big Craft guy, so I said yes and…"

Vent took her hand and put the strange Biometal on her hand, much to her confusion. He gave her a stern look, which made her even more nervous about what kind of punishment waiting for her at the end, before he held her hand in both of his, "This is Model O, a Biometal whose origin is still unknown according to Fleuve. I honestly don't want you to hold on to it, but after hearing his side of explanation, I think you might be able to control it better than I am."

Estelle gently released her hand from her father's hold and looked at the Biometal on her hand, "I… can control it better…?"

He gave her a nod, "Both Fleuve and myself don't really understand why, but the Biometal is actually compatible with you. But even if it's compatible," the stern look came back to his face, "don't use it unless you really need some extra boost. I… I don't want you to…"

Estelle looked at her father in confusion as he stopped in the middle of his sentence, "You don't want me to…?"

Vent shook his head, "No, it's nothing," he turned to the door behind them, "Come on, everyone is waiting for us."

The young brunette watched as her father went out of the control room without another word. She could tell that he was worried, but she couldn't truly understand what he was worried about. Was her transformation using the Biometal causing some sort of harm that he wasn't telling her? All she could remember about her transformation was that she had lost control and…

' _Prairie…'_  Estelle looked at the Biometal as realization struck her,  _'Could she be the one protecting me before…?'_

* * *

In the big room of golden walls and spikes, the group was surrounded by a circle of various mechaniloids. The army of mechaniloids arrived in almost like an instant, as the group was initially traveling through the area while looking for any clues for the hidden entrance leading to the old lab Grey had been using. While the entrance itself was found from a single push of a switch from Estelle, it wasn't without a trap to prevent any entries in.

The older Mega Men had taken the frontlines to fend off the short range attacks as the younger ones attacked with long-ranged moves. The experience from years of fighting had made the frontmost defenses to be sturdy enough that the younger Mega Men hardly took a hit from the mechaniloids. Even so, their experience came with the effects of age they were slowly feeling as their movements weren't as fast as they were years before.

Vent had just blocked a Galleon's saber with his own before throwing it to the side with some force on his saber, but he wasn't fast enough to reach when another one of the said Galleon was coming with another saber. He had braced himself for the attack, but a charged shot was enough to annihilate it completely before hitting him.

He let out a tired smile, knowing exactly who had got his back, "Thanks, Aile! Good to see that you're still as sharp as ever!"

The commander had to ignore his praises as she had quickly shot down a variety of Galleons before their buster shots could be fired. Aile lowered her buster slightly once they were down, taking a quick glance at Vent to reply, "This isn't the time for praises, Vent! Don't let your guard down or the kids are going to get hurt!"

Aeolus had finished his three-hit saber combo to clean up a bunch of mechaniloid coming his way before turning to the person next to him. Seeing that Atlas was still trembling helplessly as Storm and Iris were firing cyclones and ice dragons at the enemy made him sigh, "I told you  _not_  to be this foolish when all you can do is shaking in fear."

"I-I'm not!" the red-armored woman rejected angrily as she tried aiming her buster guns at the enemies, but her hands were trembling too much for her to aim properly, "I-I-I c-c-can s-still…!"

"Mother, please!" Storm had dashed out from the inner circle of fighters with his jets, landing in front of his mother, "Let Father and the others handle this and get into the inner ring!"

Atlas shook her head in protest, "N-No! I have to fight… I just… have to…"

The green-haired teen had released a few balls of electricity before he turned to his mother in irritation, "Mother, please listen to me and Father for once! Nobody is forcing you to fight if you can't, so please stay out of the battlefield and let us handle everything here!"

The woman shook her head in protest as she lowered her head, "No! Stop telling me what to do when you don't know what you're doing!"

"I know what I'm doing!"

"No, you-" Atlas had raised her head as she tried voicing her protest once more, only to see that Storm was looking at her in annoyance, with a few bombs in the air right above him.

Fear had struck her even more, with the images of the Galleons from years before flashing in her mind. One of their sabers had struck her, but she couldn't feel the pain of being struck. The faces of people came after, with the looks of despair on their faces, as familiar voices echoed in her head. The voices which had suppressed her courage and confidence in the battlefield for years. The voices which had given her the view that she wasn't capable of protecting others, even if that someone was her own flesh and blood.

" _The baby couldn't survive."_

Her second child, Storm's supposed sibling. She had let them die because she couldn't protect them. She didn't listen to her husband and she had let him down when they lost their unborn child. If she could turn the time back, she would've done so and prevented her from being so stubborn and stayed in the base instead. She regretted the decision to charge in like her reckless youthful days and she didn't want to lose anyone anymore because of it.

Storm was still her child and she wasn't going to let him be taken away from her as well. She would never forgive herself had she done the same mistake as she did years before.

Her body was moving on her own as she stepped to the front and knocked Storm quickly back into the inner ring. The bombs were closing in on her as she did so, but she quickly used her buster guns to knock them back towards the mechaniloids, creating small explosions in many places they landed to take care a bit of the enemy. She wasn't done with just that, however.

Atlas could feel that her body was starting to remember her battle stances from the past as she looked at the approaching mechaniloids with newly-found confidence in her eyes. She let out a yell as a show of her fighting spirit before she punched the air with her buster guns, shooting out her own bombs at the enemy. The explosions caused by her bombs had slightly pushed the enemy's frontlines before she followed her attack by slamming both of her buster guns to the ground.

Tall towers of flames appeared in front of her before it moved towards the mechaniloid army and burned down everything in its path. The attack had left a narrow pathway in the middle of the mechaniloid army before she went to her knees as she panted in exhaustion. While her body was tired from using that much strength in a short time after years of absence, she was smiling tiredly as she was proud with the result.

"Looks like someone's back in action!" the silver-haired Hunter exclaimed in excitement behind her, before she saw the pathway she had created towards the lab's entrance, "Someone's gotta go in there and someone's gotta stay to keep these guys away from our main attackers, so what's the plan now?"

"I'd say," Thetis' sentence was interrupted as he broke an ice cube he created to send its broken pieces at the enemy, "send the children ahead first while we keep these mechaniloids at bay!"

Vent gave him a nod, which he couldn't properly see, before he slashed the mechaniloids in front of him quickly, "Come on, let's make a way for them!"

The older Mega Men's attention shifted to the narrow pathway as it was slowly being blocked once more by the mechaniloid army. Vent and Aeolus had initiated the opening as they took out the frontmost mechaniloids with their sabers, allowing the younger three to get into the pathway. Thetis had frozen Aile's and Ashe's buster shots, turning them into ice spikes raining on each side of the pathway. Atlas ended the attacks with two walls of flame on each side of the pathway, blocking the mechaniloids from touching the three.

Once the three had made it into the lab, a shadow which Thetis, Aeolus, and Atlas noticed had entered along with them before the pathway was crowded with more mechaniloids. Their first task was done and they were left to take care of the guarding mechaniloid army before they could get into the lab to follow the three younger Mega Men.

Aile was stealing worried glances at the covered lab entrance as they continued fighting, which Vent had noticed, "What's wrong?"

Aile quickly shook her head, trying to get her attention back to the enemies in front of her, "N-No, I'm just… a bit worried about them…"

"Don't worry, they'll be fine," the two turned to the blue-haired man behind them as he turned his head to them with a confident smile, "We saw a shadow following them. Siarnaq must've followed us out here and gone in with them just now."

"Yes," Atlas nodded in agreement, "He's a fine soldier, all right. He won't let us down, even when his life is at stake."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prepare for some youngster action next chapter, because the kids are fighting on their own!


End file.
